Volume of credit card use in the seven days ended yesterday was 9% lower than pre-crisis

The extent of credit card use has also remained stable over the past week, according to recent data published by the Bank of Israel. The data shows that the volume of credit card use in the seven days ended yesterday was 9% lower than the use of pre-crisis credit cards. This is a figure more or less the same as the week before, when the volume of use was 11% lower than the pre-crisis period.
When examining the use of credit cards by industry, an interesting picture emerges of various trends: for example, the tourism industry that suffered the most severe damage during the crisis continues to record a recovery trend.
Credit card use in this area is still 54% lower than pre-crisis, but this is an improvement over previous weeks so it was lower than 60% compared to pre-crisis. The slight increase is mainly due to a return to domestic tourism activity. The interesting question is whether this trend will continue in the coming week in light of what appears to be the second wave of the Corona epidemic.
The data also shows that the flourishing of electrical appliances, furniture and clothing is beginning to bloom. In recent weeks, there has been a 15% -20% increase in the volume of purchases in these industries, which was probably due to occupied demand accumulated during the closure period. This demand backlog seems to be calming down, and this week's purchases in this area were only 7% higher than pre-crisis.
A weak week has also been recorded in the restaurant sector. After recovering in the last month since its opening, a certain setback has been recorded: If a week ago, the use of restaurant credit cards was only 13% lower than the pre-crisis level, then in the last week the figure already reflected a 19% decrease compared to the pre-crisis level.
Another notable negative is in the food industry - this sector that showed resilience during the crisis period (and even an increase in activity), recorded a negative week with a 4% decline compared to pre-crisis data, whereas only last week saw a 6% increase over the routine period.