Spending fillip for the high street
consumer spending grew 4.4 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011, according to a new index from Visa and Markit.
But the eighth successive quarter of growth was bolstered by spending on NS&I savings certificates and Olympics tickets.
Marc O’Brien, managing director of Visa UK, said: “While retailers have reported a difficult couple of months, the index suggests that consumer expenditure is still growing but that there was a switch of disposable expenditure into savings during May when consumers purchased large numbers of national savings certificates.
“June’s figures suggest a more positive story for the high street as consumers seem to have returned to their more usual spending habits.”