Cyprus credit card spending falls 2% in January-August

Local credit card spending in Cyprus fell by 2% compared with the year earlier in the first eight months of 2009, according to data from the credit card company JCC.
Local plastic card use by Cyprus residents was EUR 1,220,539,412 (EUR 1.2 bln) in January-August, having risen by 16% for the whole of 2008.
In August alone, sales fell year on year by 5% to EUR 154.2 mln, having fallen by 3% in July. Thus, the pace of decrease appears to be accelerating.
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 eight months to EUR 271.4 mln, the same fall recorded in January-July. 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 668.3 mln abroad in January-August, a rise of 9% compared with the same period of 2008, although this was slightly lower than the 10% recorded in January-July.

Meanwhile, data on merchant turnover show that that the highest proportion of spending volumes in the southern part of Cyprus during January-August (20.0%) was spent in supermarkets.
The second highest proportion (13.3%) was spent on clothing, while other retailers were third at 11.7%.