Cyprus card spending ex auto rises 5% in February

**Licence renewal skews data**

Local card spending excluding auto licences rose by 5% over the year earlier in February, according to JCC payments systems, the dominant card provider.
The overall figure showed a fall of 3%, but this was skewed by the dates for renewal of motor vehicle licences.
In 2012, the official date for the renewal of licences (before it got shifted) was 1 February, whereas in 2011 the date was 15 February.
This mean that spending this year was concentrated in January.
For the first two months of the year, card spending was up by 11% compared with the year earlier to EUR 411.2 mln.
Spending by Cypriots abroad rose by 12% to EUR 221.4 mln in the first two months of the year, despite a 4.2% fall in outbound tourism in January. This may be because card spending abroad includes internet purchases from non-Cypriot suppliers.
Spending by foreigners in Cyprus rose by 7% to EUR 42.0 mln. Total revenue from tourism rose by only 0.7% over the year earlier in January.
www.sapientaeconomics.com