Shopper spending rises by 2% in September boosted by increase in food spending

It suggests that shopper confidence is starting to return although that upward spending trend in September may be halted by the new round of regional lockdowns now being imposed.

Return to school shopping and increased spending on home improvements were other factors in the September sales performance.

Spending on essential items grew 6.1% during the month with a 15.4% rise in supermarket spending.

High street spending was down 1.9% – an improvement on August when it dipped by 6.7% – which suggests people are becoming more comfortable going out to visit shops.

The data also shows that more people are optimistic about the UK economy than at any time since March but 34% expect coronavirus or other economic changes to have a direct impact on their income over the next 12 months.

Raheel Ahmed, head of consumer products at Barclaycard, said: “Consumers clearly made the most of the sunshine by socialising in September, with spending at pubs and bars seeing the first increase since before the national lockdown was introduced in March.

“While the nation’s confidence in the UK economy has improved slightly, many are still cautious about the upcoming winter months, and the subsequent uncertainty it may bring has caused some to start stockpiling once more.

“However, we also saw households preparing to spend more time inside as winter draws closer, with home improvement increasing as a result.”

The Barclaycard report combines hundreds of millions of customer transactions with consumer research to provide an in-depth view of UK spending. Barclaycard handles nearly half of the nation’s credit and debit card transactions.