DAVY VIEW

Irish retail sales were flat in May but followed a 4% gain in April and are up 3.5% over the past three months. It is still too early to gauge if a marked slowdown in consumer spending is underway as households respond to the fall in their real incomes from higher energy prices and CPI inflation. Thus far, the data for June are reasonably encouraging, with credit/debit card spending up 16% on 2021, including strong growth in expenditure on accommodation (44%), restaurants (63%) and transport (159%).