First Data mid-month overview: Card spending growth solid

Atlanta -- The SpendTrend report released Wednesday by First Data Corp., which tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations, showed that card spending growth has remained solid through mid December.



According to the report, for the first two weeks of December 2011, overall dollar volume growth was steady compared with November levels. Card spending growth was stronger than this period last year. Retail dollar volume and transaction growth were both up from November. Among retail categories, clothing/accessory and general merchandise stores posted healthy dollar volume growth in early December and were up significantly from November.



“Historically, there has been some slowing in spending between Black Friday and the last week before Christmas,” said Silvio Tavares, senior VP and division manager of First Data Global Information and Analytics Solutions. “This year we did not see that occur as consumers kept spending on discounted goods.”