LONDON (Reuters) – Black Friday sales pushed consumer spending on credit and debit cards in Britain to its highest level since before the first lockdown of March last year, official data showed on Thursday.
The Office for National Statistics said card spending stood at 121% of its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.
But there were signs that the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant might have dampened demand for some consumer services, with cafe chain Pret a Manger reporting a drop in sales in 8 out of 10 locations, the ONS said.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)
