{"id":423231,"date":"2026-05-12T03:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/423231\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T03:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:11:11","slug":"uk-households-cut-back-spending-at-fastest-rate-in-18-months-barclays-says-consumer-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/423231\/","title":{"rendered":"UK households cut back spending at fastest rate in 18 months, Barclays says | Consumer spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Households cut back on their spending in April at the fastest pace in 18 months, as the conflict in the Middle East provoked fears of another cost of living crisis, a report from one of the UK\u2019s biggest banks has suggested.<\/p>\n

Barclays, which processes nearly 40% of the UK\u2019s credit and debit card transactions, said its data showed there had been a 0.1% fall in card spending last month compared with a year earlier. This was the first year-on-year fall since November 2024.<\/p>\n

The bank, which analyses the hundreds of millions of transactions made on its debit and credit cards each month, said non-essential spending fell by 0.3% as consumers cut back on discretionary spending.<\/p>\n

Travel spending fell by 5.7% in April, after a 3.3% decrease in March, with airlines down 8.3%, while spending on eating and drinking flatlined in April.<\/p>\n

However, perhaps in a sign that households were choosing to stay in and save money, spending on digital content and subscriptions rose 9.2% in April compared with a year earlier, which Barclays said was \u201chelped by the popularity of TV series Euphoria, The Testaments and The Pitt\u201d.<\/p>\n

Essential spending rose by 0.3% as spending on fuel increased 10.4% \u2013 the greatest rise since December 2022 when Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in petrol and diesel prices.<\/p>\n

The figures follow a slew of surveys<\/a> and reports<\/a> that suggest consumers and businesses are preparing for harder times ahead as the Iran war rattles energy markets and disrupts global supply chains.<\/p>\n

The Bank of England warned last week that higher inflation in the UK was \u201cunavoidable\u201d<\/a> as a result of the Iran war, with typical energy bills likely to rise 16% to \u00a31,900 by the summer and food prices to rise 7% by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

A survey conducted by Barclays alongside its spending data found that 72% of consumers expect tensions in the Middle East to impact their cost of living throughout 2026, with energy bills, inflation and food prices the greatest causes for concern.<\/p>\n

Confidence in non-essential spending dropped to 49%, its lowest level since March 2023, but 52% say they feel able to manage their day-to-day finances without significant stress.<\/p>\n

Jack Meaning, the chief UK economist at Barclays, said: \u201cThe key unknown for the UK outlook is how long this uncertainty will last. If confidence remains subdued for too long, and consumers continue to limit their spending as a result, it will be a challenge for households and businesses to weather the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

A separate report from the British Retail Consortium and the consultancy KPMG said retail sales fell 3% in April, compared with growth of 7% in April 2025, with food sales falling 2.5% yearon year, against a growth of 8.2% in April 2025. However, this data was skewed by the timing of Easter, with the run-up to the holiday falling in the March figures this year but in April in 2025.<\/p>\n

Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: \u201cApril\u2019s sales fall was largely driven by the Easter shift, with food hit hardest. But weak consumer confidence also played a role as fears about the Middle East conflict driving up living costs led shoppers to rein in \u2026 With the World Cup coming, retailers hope it will provide a lift, and early signs show demand for TVs and sound systems picking up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Households cut back on their spending in April at the fastest pace in 18 months, as the conflict…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-423231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}