Cyprus: Road tax pushes card spend up 26% in Jan

Spending using plastic cards issued in Cyprus rose by 26% over the year earlier to EUR 231,540,461 (EUR 232 mln) in January, according to the card company, JCC Payment Systems.
JCC noted that the main reason for the increase was road tax renewals. These are increasingly being paid online, as part of the government’s attempts to improve e-government.
Spending by tourists rose by 8% to EUR 21,188,454 (EUR 21.2 mln), giving some hope that 2012 might be another good year for tourism, after a 10% increase in card spending by foreigners for the whole of 2011.
Spending and withdrawals abroad, which includes spending on foreign internet sites using locally issued cards, rose by 13% compared with January 2011 to EUR 115,103,302 (EUR 115.1 mln).
In terms of turnover the biggest proportion of local card spending went on the government (29.5%), no doubt because of the road tax, supermarkets (15.4%) and clothing, shoes and accessories (11.2%).
www.sapientaeconomics.com