"It seems consumers in general were very careful‚ since December 2012 showed one of the slowest increases in card transactions in the last few years‚" said Brad Gillis‚ CEO for regulated products at BankservAfrica.
"The average value of all card transactions was only 5.6% higher than a year ago - which is just about what inflation is at the moment‚" he noted.
The December consumer inflation rate was 5.7% year on year (y/y) according to Statistics SA.
Chief economist for economists.co.za Mike Schüssler agreed and explained that retail sales‚ the travel industry and service stations were unlikely to show strong growth in December in relation to December 2011.
He observed that the y/y increase eased to 5.6% in December from 7.2% in September.
Since the Marikana tragedy on August 16 last year‚ the SA economy has been hurt by a series of strikes. This resulted in several credit ratings agencies downgrading SA‚ while consumer and business confidence has declined.
"South African consumers are certainly a bit more under pressure than before‚ as this is the lowest increase in average card values for a December holiday period since 2009‚" Schüssler said.
The data generally indicates consumers mainly spent at supermarkets and service stations‚ followed by department stores and‚ surprisingly‚ restaurants.
"It also shows that only about a quarter of all spending done on credit cards can be considered luxury spending - especially if the types of stores‚ where the spending took place‚ are considered‚" Schüssler explained.
By far the largest number of card transactions (over 18 million) took place in general grocery stores and supermarkets.
This was followed by 10.6 million of credit card transactions at petrol stations and their convenience stores.
These two categories represented about a third of all known card transactions for the month of December.
Surprisingly‚ fast food restaurants had only about 1.9 million transactions - about a million less than sit-down restaurants and department stores.
According to Schüssler‚ this possibly reflects the fact that many transactions in this category are cash-based.
Fast food restaurants had fewer credit card transactions than family clothing stores‚ convenience stores and liquor stores. The least number of transactions took place in the travel industry (including flights) and furniture stores.
"However‚ both these categories had the highest average transaction value‚ which indicates a much higher percentage share of total spending‚" said Schüssler.
"For every one travel transaction‚ there are 13 transactions in a restaurant. For every hairdresser visit‚ there are 10 visits to either a garage or its convenience store. The figures probably do not fully reveal the importance of fast food restaurants‚ but in most cases these figures do indeed reveal that petrol stations and supermarkets are the places that South Africans visited most in a consumer sense‚" he said.
Of the R116 billion spending via credit cards‚ about R40 billion could be considered retail spending‚ while about R20 billion could be considered traveling‚ eating out and entertainment spending. A further R20 billion was car related (petrol‚ tolls‚ service‚ repairs‚ parts‚ etc).
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