December Horeca spend up 10%

Sharp increases in expenditure last December can be seen in the Hotels, Restaurants & Bars sector (up 9.7% on December 2016) and in the Recreation & Culture sector (up 8.6%).

Visa’s latest Irish Consumer Spending Index measures expenditure across all payment types (cash, cheques and electronic payments) and this pointed to a 4.9% year-on-year increase in general spending during December. This followed a 5.1% rise the previous month, highlighting the continued expansion of consumer spending for 10 successive months in 2017.

Irish households increased their spending on Food & Drink on an annual basis in December, the fourth month running in which a rise has been recorded. At 5.4% growth was at an eight-month high.