ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Consumer spending growth remained strong throughout March, PSCU is reporting, although debit spend was “soft.”
“Strong consumer spending growth remained throughout the month of March 2022, with softer debit performance skewed by the third round of economic impact payments issued in March 2021,” said Mike Bell, vice president, Insights, PSCU, referring to data from the April edition of the PSCU Payments Index. “This month’s Consumer Price Index reflected the largest 12-month increase in 40 years, with the effect of higher gasoline costs accounting for half of the increase as the world grapples with the effects of geopolitical conflict and, domestically, travel and entertainment activities return to pre-pandemic levels.”
In its newest “Deep Dive,” PSCU explores the gasoline sector beyond the price increases to identify what the company called “potential changes in demand.”
PSCU said the entertainment sector led all sectors in March for top growth in both credit and debit purchases, with gasoline and travel rounding out the top three.”
Key Takeaways
A sampling of key takeaways from the April report includes:
- The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) for March increased to 8.5% – a 1.2% seasonally adjusted increase and the fastest rate of inflation in 40 years.
- Gasoline prices hit a 14-year high in March at $4.32 per gallon, a 49% increase from March 2021. While year-over-year Automated Fuel Dispenser (AFD) gas purchases were up 65% for credit and 43% for debit, the estimated quantity of gasoline purchased was up 10% on credit cards and down 4% on debit cards.
- Consumer spending remains strong, PSCU said. with credit purchases up 22% and debit purchases up 1% year over year. “Contributing to the markedly lower growth in debit was exceptional spend in 2021 that included the third economic stimulus payment,” PSCU stated.
- For debit cards, the growth in transactions exceeded the growth in purchase volume, resulting in the first decrease in debit card average purchase in the past two years. For March, the average debit purchase was $47.11, down 1.5% or $0.74 compared to March 2021. The March 2022 average credit card purchase was up 4.6% year over year, hitting a new PSCU Payments Index high at $74.46.
- The credit card delinquency rate for March was 1.38%, which was 36 basis points lower than the pre-pandemic level of March 2019. The last month when the difference to the pre-COVID delinquency rate was 36 basis points was August 2020.
The full report is available for download here.
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