Another good month for UK consumer spending in September
- Month-on-month consumer spending increased by +1.5% in September, little-changed from the solid rate of growth recorded in August (+1.6%).
- Displaced consumer spending following the Olympics last year led to a reduction of year-on-year spending in September (-1.2%), following a slight increase in August (+0.8%).
- Quarterly spending figures signalled only a slight reduction in expenditure during September, (-0.1%), as strong expenditure growth in September and August largely offset a weak July.
- Non-seasonally adjusted year-on-year expenditure decreased through both Face-to-Face (-2.3%) and Online (-0.6%) spending channels in September, but increased slightly in Mail/Telephone Order categories (+0.3%).
Jeremy Nicholds, Director of Commercial Development at Visa Europe said:
“September heralded another good month for consumer spending in the UK, with a rise of +1.5% on the month before. With spending in August also having increased by +1.6%, this means that September and August registered the fastest expenditure increases in a year. Moving into the fourth quarter of the year, this puts the UK economy in good stead with consumers slowly gaining in confidence ahead of the peak trading season.
“The year-on-year decline in consumer spending was the result of a very strong performance in September last year which witnessed the largest monthly rise in spending for nearly three years. Therefore the improving trends in the monthly and quarterly spending measures provide a better insight of household expenditure for this month. The remainder of the year will therefore provide a more unblemished reflection of the state of consumer spending.”
Paul Smith, Senior Economist at Markit said:
“Spending continued to rise in September, and at a solid and consistent pace. Following on from August, the latest data mark one of the best back-to-back monthly growth periods of consumer expenditure in recent years and add further to the recent positive economic news flow in the UK.
“Although annual spend was slightly down, this seems more a function of the displacement of spending caused by the Olympics in 2012, making comparisons with last year difficult to read. Still, we note an increasingly positive trend in Recreation Culture and continued growth in Hotels Restaurants, two areas not traditionally covered by other widely-reported barometers of consumer spending.
“With confidence continuing to improve, the recovery of expenditure evident since the turn of the year looks set to continue in the coming months. That said, spending volumes remain below their pre-2008 peak and there remains plenty of ground to be made up before we get back to the levels seen prior to the start of the financial crisis.”
