As the ONS issues its latest ‘Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators’ data, figures from neobank Zopa suggest consumer spending habits are about to start driving the economy forward.

Clare Gambardella, Chief Customer Officer comments: “These figures, and our own credit card data suggest we’re heading for a summer of spending, as consumers begin to splash out on much-missed experiences from the last year. Despite the continued impact of Covid on UK economic performance, it is positive that customer spending is already increasing and looks set for a significant rise as cinemas, theatres, and indoor drinking and dining opens up next week.

“While the ONS study does not yet show an increase in % of people traveling to work, our credit card data suggests that this may well increase significantly next quarter. As the stay at home order lifted, Zopa saw spending on commuter travel among its customers increase by 50% between February and April as more people returned to their places of work. There are also early signs that people in the UK are setting their sights on the next stage of restriction easing –early stats from our credit card data shows flight bookings initially increased by 30% as green list countries were announced and are likely to soar as consumers have increased certainty about the requirements for travel”

• Figures taken from ONS ‘Economic activity and social change in the UK, real-time indicators’

• Total spending on Zopa credit cards has increased 110% from January 2021 to April 2021 (customer numbers increased 24% over the period)

• Zopa’s lending data shows that disbursals in April 2021 have more than doubled from a comparable period last year – Zopa’s lending criteria was significantly tightened in response to the pandemic in March 2020. Throughout this period of uncertainty, Zopa has continually adjusted its lending criteria to ensure that it is responsibly offering loans to individuals throughout the UK that are able to afford repayments

• Early data from Zopa’s credit cards suggest that compared to February 2021, spending on airlines was up 30% at the start of May