HORECA November spend up 4.2%

A 3.4% increase in expenditure was seen across the Recreation & Culture sector during November while the Hotels, Restaurants & Bars sector witnessed growth of 4.2% according to Visa’s Irish Consumer Spending Index, produced by IHS Markit which measures expenditure across all payment types (cash, cheques and electronic payments).

But the only sector to see growth quicken in November was Food & Drink, where spending was up 3.0% year-on-year. This was the fastest increase since August.

Overall Visa’s ICS recorded a modest year-on-year increase of 1.0% in consumer spending in Ireland, representing the weakest growth in just over a year, slowing from 4.0% in October.

Face-to-Face spending was down 4.3% year-on-year, the first reduction since August 2017 and amongst the sharpest since the series began in September 2014.