Spain | Monitoring card spending

During the first weeks of April, confinement reduced weekly card spending by about -60% year-on-year. The progressive advance in lifting lockdown restrictions has mitigated this contraction to -47% in the week of 4-10th of May, -37% in the week of 11-17th of May and -22% in the week of 18-24th of May.

Key points

• Key points:
• Spending performance has been more favourable in the provinces that advanced to phase 1 on the 11th of May, where consumption only dropped by -15% year-on-year last week. In the provinces that moved to Phase 1 on the 18th of May, the fall was somewhat less pronounced, at -18%.
• In contrast, the recovery in expenditure in the provinces that remained in Phase 0 on the 24th of May is delayed (-30% year-on-year in the week of 18-24th of May). However, the easing of restrictions in Madrid and Barcelona resulted in a slight improvement.
• Since the beginning of the lifting lockdown restrictions, all sectors have made good progress, except for accommodation and travel. The growth in purchases of food (74%), pharmaceuticals (11%), books and press (5%) and household equipment (3%) is noteworthy, as well as the performance of spending in beauty centres (-6%).
• Moving from phase 0 to phase 1 moderated by 15 points the year-on-year drop in card spending in the affected provinces during the week of 11-17th of May and by 10 points the decrease in the provinces that entered on 18th of May.

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