Fable Data, the London based award-winning consumer transaction data specialist, has today released figures that show transaction volumes across London’s transport network declined by up to 28% during the three day outage in late June, making this industrial action the most significant in terms of its impact on commuters.

Move further into the realms of leisure, and the numbers keep rising [...] spending in its pubs and restaurants is now tracking above where it was in 2019, according to figures from Fable Data.

Swedish rival H&M last month also reported a sudden slowdown in sales growth. Spending on apparel has dropped below 2019 levels in the UK, according to data provider Fable.

Airline spending was 39 per cent lower in the week to December 12 than in the equivalent week of 2019, compared with a shortfall of 20 per cent the previous month, according to Fable Data, a company that tracks bank transactions.

Separate debit card figures, compiled by Fable Data, showed that household spending recovered strongly in the week ending December 5 to be 10.7 per cent higher than the equivalent week in 2019.

According to Fable Data, which tracks credit card transactions, UK online retail spend is down about 40 percentage points since non-essential shops were allowed to reopen on April 12. This compares with an increase in spend of 45 percentage points for physical stores over the same period.

In the week to August 15, bank transactions tracked by Fable Data recorded spending 7 per cent above the same period last year, when it was boosted by the government’s “eat out to help out” meal subsidy scheme.

Academics at the University of Nottingham partnered with Experian, Fable Data and Huq to source data from consumer and company credit files, transaction-level data on consumer spending and geolocation. These granular data sources allow the researchers to track, at the local authority level, consumer and business financial distress; measures of how much people travel; and consumer spending.

Consumers visited and spent less in UK shops, bars and restaurants in June, according to new data, suggesting the economic recovery lost momentum following a rise in Covid-19 infections. Avinash Srinivasan, analyst at Fable Data, said that high street spending in particular “has continued to track lower in recent weeks”.

Consumers in the eurozone are flocking back to bars and restaurants, booking holidays and travelling to work again, according to unofficial data that suggest pre-pandemic patterns of economic activity are re-emerging. In Germany, restaurant bookings and consumer spending are both higher than their levels in June 2019, according to OpenTable and Fable Data, which tracks bank transactions.

Spending in UK pubs spiked 28% on 2019 trading levels for the first week of indoor trading. Consumers were keen to get back indoors, transaction data from Fable has revealed, with a 28% growth in spend in the week 17 May to 23 May, compared to the same week in 2019.

UK consumer spending between Monday and Wednesday last week rose 10 per cent on the levels recorded for the same days in 2019, before the pandemic hit. This was the strongest reading of any week since coronavirus restrictions were put in place in the UK last March, according to figures from Fable Data, which tracks banks transactions.

Meanwhile there are early indications that consumers are becoming more willing to spend. Retail and entertainment centres are receiving more visitors, according to Google Mobility data. German consumer spending in the week ending May 9 was just 3 per cent below the same week in 2019, according to Fable Data, which tracks bank transactions.

Spending in the week to April 18 was 5 per cent above the equivalent week in 2019, according to Fable Data, which tracks credit card transactions. The figures covered the period after the reopening of non-essential shops, the hospitality sectors and personal services such as hairdressers and it was the first week this year that spending beat the equivalent week in 2019.

In the first three days after the reopening, consumer spending was up 10 per cent compared with the same days of that week in 2019, up from nearly minus 30 per cent in the week ending April 11, according to Fable Data, a company that tracks credit card transactions.

Of more potential use is research from the likes of University of Nottingham professor John Gathergood and his colleagues using real time credit card spending figures from data firm Fable, giving a more recent picture of where the spending is happening. 
The authors rightly point out that with such surgical data on spending available – the Fable data is available with a one-day lag – the opportunity is there for the Government to offer surgical support with policies such as business rates relief.

A recent UK government aim is to address such disparities through policies to 'level-up' the regions that historically have experienced less benefits arising from globalisation and national economic growth. This is a particular pertinent issue for the UK, which is among the most geographically unequal developed economies. In our research, we use granular, real-time data on consumer spending to measure the uneven 2020 recession and recovery across UK regions. 

 In real demand terms, the consumer transaction data specialist Fable Data reported that in the U.K., spending on electronics ranked among the top three segments in November and December, and in Germany, hardware alongside beer and wine were consistently among the most popular individual purchase areas.

Germany last week rolled out a series of new measures with infections and deaths growing at a record rates. Consumer spending in the second week of January was down 25 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Fable Data.

German consumer spending in the second week of January was 25 per cent lower than in the same period last year, according to Fable Data, which tracks bank transactions.

Figures produced by Fable Data, based on card transactions and bank payments, show that consumer expenditure in the UK was up 9.4 per cent in the week ending December 13 compared with the same period a year ago.

The figures were released as research from Fable Data, a company that tracks credit card transactions, showed UK consumer spending contracting 8.8 per cent in the week ending November 15 compared to the same period last year, making a sudden reversal of the improvements seen over the summer.

As the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to spread, global policy makers face a multitrillion-dollar question: How can we contain it without a fresh round of broad lockdowns? The researchers combined COVID-19 case reports with spending figures provided by Fable Data.

Consumer spending contracted 2.8 per cent in the week ending November 8 compared with the same week last year, down from a 1 per cent expansion in the previous week, but a smaller drop than in March, according to Fable Data.

Figures from Fable Data, a company that tracks bank transactions, showed the annual change in spending for pubs and restaurants contracted in the week ending October 18, reversing September’s expansion, despite growth in spending on food deliveries.

Spending at restaurants, pubs and bars in London climbed above 2019 levels for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic before new restrictions were put in place, data provided exclusively to City A.M has shown. Food and beverage spending was 1.7 per cent higher in September than a year earlier, according to Fable Data, which tracks card payments and bank transactions.

Translation: The British show how unsuccessful the curfew really is
Kreditkartenumsätze in Pubs lagen seit Mitte August bis Ende September laut Daten des Beratungsunternehmens Fable Data regelmäßig über dem Vorjahr. Seither verzeichnen sie einen deutlichen Abwärtstrend. Die Pub-Ausgaben liegen im zweistelligen Prozentbereich unter den Werten der entsprechenden Wochen 2019.

The latest consumer spending figures from Fable Data, a consultancy which has access to spending on cards across the UK, suggests spending in the hospitality sector remained high in September, after the August boost, but has begun to fall off. The latest figures show pubs had their worst week of takings up to last Sunday since the first week in August.

There are some indications that the summer momentum began to ease in September. For example, the IHS Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index showed growth in business activity slowed in September. This was particularly the case in the services sector. In addition, card and bank payments data collected by Fable Data point to consumer spending slowing over the course of September, following strong increases in July and August.
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According to the Fable data, based on 180,000 transactions, spending in Leicester was already 31pc down compared to its pre-virus level, at around £750,000 a day. But while the lockdown cut Covid-19 cases from 20 per 100,000 to fewer than five per 100,000 inhabitants, it did so without any further significant decline in credit card spending compared to Coventry.