Consumers in the U.K. were bullish on spending in the first two weeks of the new year, but rising inflation is expected to take a heavy toll on Britons’ finances, Bloomberg reported Monday (Jan. 24).
Data cited from Lloyds Banking Group, the London-based financial institution, revealed debit card spending increased by 27 % from Jan. 1 through Jan. 14 compared to the same period in 2020, before COVID-19 struck.
Most of the money, 42%, was spent at restaurants and pubs, the lender said, as the pandemic encouraged consumers to use their cards more for routine spending.
“While the increase in spending could be considered a sign of consumers ongoing resiliency, rising inflation and concerns around the cost of living could leave a lasting impression on household finances,” said Gabby Collins, payments director at Lloyds. “Spending power is likely to continue to be dictated by the impact of the pandemic on the wider economy.”
As inflation continues to rise, companies are seeing cost increases in delivery services, software contracts and other goods and services. Procurement teams find themselves under pressure to source new suppliers or negotiate new terms with the ones they have already.
In a PYMNTS interview with Jo Seed, chief operating officer of LogicSource, a Connecticut-based sourcing and procurement service, Seed said: “Increases are coming in, and the first place the phone rings now is the procurement team and it’s, ‘Hey, what can you do about this?’”
Learn more: Rising Inflation Drives New Demand for Procurement Solutions
All of this adds up to a flood of new projects and conversations to track, a daunting task do deal with manually in the best of times, let alone during a pandemic that’s forcing many teams to work remotely, straining supply chains in nearly every vertical.
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