Card spending increased 20.6% in 2022

Mexicans continue to make a faster use of cards to make their purchases, which is reflected in an increasing expense made by this means, mainly in the year just ended. This, despite an environment of high inflation and rising interest rates.

An analysis of the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services (driving) reveals that in 2022, the total spending made with cards, both credit and debit, amounted to more than 3.85 billion pesoswhich represented an increase of 20.6% compared to 2021 when the total amount was 3.19 trillion.

In 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic began, card spending was 2.55 trillion pesosa figure similar to that of 2019.

“The spending made in 12 months of the year (2022) represents 1.5 times what was made in the same period of 2020, which shows the abrupt stop that the start of the pandemic implied for the country,” he highlights.

The Condusef adds that now the various economic activities are gaining new impetus and employment is boosted, but it recognizes that there are factors that create uncertainty, such as the behavior of inflation, which in the first half of December stood at 7.8%.

In his analysis, he points out that only in December 2022, purchases made with a credit card reached an amount of 153,389 million pesos, an increase of 20.6% compared to the same month of 2021; while with debit cards the amount reached 259,409 million, an increase of 15.0% in the period.

“Until now, it has not been observed that inflation is significantly affecting spending with cards,” says the agency.

With debit, the highest amount

The Condusef specifies that the spending with credit cards in 2022 amounted to 1.54 trillion pesos; while in 2021 it was 1.23 trillion and in 2020 963,288 million pesos.

For its part, spending with debit cards totaled 2.30 trillion pesos last year, against 1.96 trillion in 2021 and 1.59 trillion in 2020.

In large areas, where more is spent

The dependency report points out that it is in large areas such as self-service stores y mallswhere the highest spending is made with cards with 25.0% participation,

This segment was followed by retail sales with 15.8%; gas stations with 8.2%, aggregators with 5.7%, restaurants with 4.1% and entertainment with 3.5%.