Overview
- Barclays data show total card spending fell 0.2% year on year in 2025, with essentials down 2.3% and non-essentials up 0.8% on figures that are not adjusted for inflation as CPI ran at 3.2% in November.
- Experience-led and affordable-luxury categories outperformed, with pharmacy, health and beauty up 9.5%, entertainment up 4.3% and travel up 2.7%.
- Supermarkets declined 1.7%, home improvement and DIY fell 2.3% and department stores dropped 6%, underscoring weaker demand for goods.
- KPMG’s Q4 survey finds 56% feel secure about personal finances but 58% say the economy is worsening, with respondents showing little appetite for dining out or big-ticket purchases and many planning to keep spending restrained into early 2026.
- Consumers displayed heightened price sensitivity, with more than a third using AI tools to find deals and over three quarters expressing concern about shrinkflation and skimpflation.