Cyprus credit card spending falls 2% in January-July

Local credit card spending fell by 2% over the year earlier in the first seven months of 2009 according to data from the credit card company JCC.
Local plastic card use by Cyprus residents was EUR 1,066,342,870 (EUR 1.1 mln) in the January-July, having risen by 16% for the whole of 2008.
In July alone, sales fell year on year by 3% to EUR 170.6 mln, having fallen by 2% in June.
Expenditure by foreigners in Cyprus has fallen in line with dropping tourist arrivals. Spending with non-Cyprus cards fell year on year by 17% in the first seven months to EUR 223.1 mln, the same fall recorded in January-June. In 2008 spending by non-residents fell by only 3% to EUR 491 mln.
The picture continues to be more buoyant for Cypriot spending abroad. Residents of Cyprus spent EUR 583.0 mln abroad in January-July, a rise of 10% compared with the same period of 2008.

Meanwhile, data on merchant turnover show that that the highest proportion of spending volumes in the southern part of Cyprus during January-July (15.9%) was spent in supermarkets.
The second highest proportion (11.4%) was spent on clothing, while the government was third at 9.5%.