Irish commuters returned to the nations’ transport network in their droves in March, according to detailed consumer spending data from the digital payments platform Revolut.
Its latest monthly report chronicling the spending behaviour of its 1.2 million Irish users also shows that overall consumer spending rose by a fifth last month compared to February. Revolut said that there was a particularly sharp increase in consumer spending on clothes, which rose by more than one quarter compared to the previous month.
Even though lockdown travel restrictions in March were the same as in February, Revolut’s data shows Irish commuters were less fearful last month than they were earlier in this lockdown, and were more prepared to travel, even though there is a 5km limit.
Total commuter spending on transport by Revolut’s users rose by 50 per cent in March compared to the previous month, with those journeys undertaken by 40 per cent more people. Spending on buses was up by 42 per cent; taxi spending rose 40 per cent; trains 37 per cent; and spending on road tolls was up 25 per cent, with a 23 per cent increase in the number of individual users.
Foreign travel
Revolut also said there was a sharp increase in spending by its users in March on items associated with foreign travel. Spending on airline tickets rose by 57 per cent compared to February, although the data does not reveal for when those flights are booked. Spending at airports rose by 44 per cent compared to February, although official figures from DAA show that the numbers of travellers passing through Irish airports are still at historically low levels and are down more than 90 per cent on normal.
Spending by Irish Revolut users made in person abroad – a proxy for Irish residents who travel internationally – rose by 16 per cent in March over the previous month, with 11 per cent more individual users.
The resurgence of consumer spending suggested by Revolut’s March numbers is most apparent in the clothing category. Spending there was up 26 per cent compared to February.
Spending in March was up in 79 out of the 87 merchant spending categories, and rose 14 per cent overall compared to the same month last year, when the economy entered freefall amid the panic that greeted the arrival of the first virus cases on Irish shores.
