Turkish Cypriot card spending drops for 11 month

**Casinos lose appeal for Greek Cypriots **

Plastic card spending by Turkish Cypriots south of the Green Line fell for the 11th straight month in May, according to data from the dominant card provider JCC Payment Systems analysed by Sapienta Economics Ltd.
Spending fell to EUR 1.4 mln from EUR 1.6 mln in May 2011, presumably as consumers cut back.
There was a 20.3% drop in card spending in department stores, a 19% fall in expenditure on clothing and a 13.1% decline in spending on supermarkets. These account for the three biggest items of plastic card expenditure.
For the period January-May 2012, card spending by Turkish Cypriot fell by 10% over the year earlier to EUR 6.6 mln, from EUR 7.4 mln in the same period of 2010.

Greek Cypriot spend down 4.7% y/y

Meanwhile, card spending by Greek Cypriots north of the Green Line dropped over the year earlier by 4.7% to EUR 421,868 in May, from EUR 442,548 in May 2011.
This was after a modest growth of 0.9% in April, dominated by hotels, presumably as Greek Cypriots or others living south of the Green Line headed north for the Easter break in April.
Spending on “entertainment” (mainly casinos) continues to show a dramatic fall, dropping over the year earlier by 53.1% to EUR 48,876 in May, after a fall of 41.3% in April.
For the first five months of the year total card spending in the north fell by 8.8% to EUR 2.1 mln, while spending on entertainment in this period fell by 44.8%.
Card spending in Turkey itself, on the other hand, rose by 5.2% year on year in the first five months of the year to EUR 1.8 bln.