Turkish Cypriot card spend drops for eight month

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**Greek Cypriot spending rises**

Card spending by Turkish Cypriots south of the Green Line dropped for the eighth consecutive month in February, based on analysis of JCC Payments Systems data by Sapienta Economics.
Spending in February fell by 8.7% compared with the year earlier to EUR 1.34 mln, after a drop of 8.6% in January.
For the whole of 2010, card spending by Turkish Cypriots fell by 7.8%.
All of the major items were affected in February. Spending on clothing fell by 16.8%, DIY by 12.2%, department stores by 19% and supermarkets by 8.9%.
Austerity measures in the north have seen a freeze on wage indexation since the beginning of 2011.

Meanwhile, Greek Cypriot spending in northern Cyprus rose compared with the year earlier by 4.6% to EUR 379, 484, although this was after a sharp fall of 12.2% in January.
The main increase was in spending on airlines, up 44% to EUR 93,785, although this might be related to methodological changes.
There was also an increase of 13.2% in spending on hotels, reaching EUR 165,971.
Following a similar pattern from last year spending on entertainment, which includes casinos, was down by 33% at EUR 44,038.
www.sapientaeconomics.com