UK consumer spending softens, job ads fall in past week

LONDON (Reuters) – British consumers’ spending on credit and debit cards fell slightly over the past week and the number of job adverts declined, while restaurant bookings rose sharply, weekly data collated by the Office for National Statistics showed.

Credit and debit card spending – which is based on Bank of England CHAPS interbank payment flows, and is not seasonally or inflation adjusted – fell in all categories other than work-related spending, which includes commuting costs.

Overall spending in the week to June 16 was 2 percentage points lower than the week before and the same in cash terms as its level in February 2020, before the pandemic.

Restaurant reservations rose 20 percentage points in the week to June 19 after a 36 percentage-point fall the week before, while the number of jobs advertised by recruiters Adzuna fell by 5% in the week to June 17 to 123% of its pre-pandemic average.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)