UK Consumer Spending Down 0.8% Year-on-Year in July

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Consumers in the United Kingdom decreased their spending for the third month in a row, going down 0.8 percent year-on-year in July, with clothing, household goods, food and transport the most affected retail sectors, the Visa global payments technology company said on Monday.

"Consumer spend fell for the third month in a row in July, the first time overall spending had fallen for three consecutive months since February 2013. The figure provides further evidence that rising prices and stagnant wage growth are squeezing consumers’ pockets," Kevin Jenkins, UK & Ireland managing director at Visa, was quoted as saying in the company's statement.

Consumer spending in UK fell by 0.9 percent year-on-year in May and by 0.2 percent in June, Visa said in its report, noting that overall spending had fallen for three consecutive months for the first time since February 2013.

Spending on clothing and footwear fell 5.1 percent year-on-year in July, as it also did on household goods (4 percent), and transport and communications (6.1 percent), Visa specified.

Nevertheless, hotels, restaurants and bars enjoyed a 6-percent increase in revenue.

"The sector is likely to have benefited from an early surge in summer staycations, as the weak pound made holidaying at home more attractive," Jenkins explained.

Visa's UK Consumer Spending Index monitors eight broad sectors via card transaction data. According to Visa, it has a good correlation with official data, in particular Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Household Expenditure from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS).