As general consumer spend only grew 1.8% year-on-year in December, the lowest rate of growth seen since March 2016, pubs and restaurants bucked the trend.

However, the new data is from Barclaycard, which sees nearly half of the nation’s credit and debit card transactions, saw strong growth in pubs and restaurants over the festive month.

Pubs saw an increase of 12.9%, while restaurants were at 9.1%, as Brits continued to make the most of the festive period by relaxing and dining out.

As January dawns, one in two consumers (49%) expect to cut back to cover the cost of Christmas, while 48% say they feel less confident about their personal finances in the coming year than they have done for many years.

We have yet to see if this will bite into the eating and drinking out sub-sectors of the foodservice industry.

With the Brexit debacle continuing, it's understandable that one in two (50%) UK adults are concerned that there may be a decline in the UK economy – up from 43% last year.

(source: Barclaycard, image: pixabay)