PSCU Payments Index February 2023: An in-depth look at Payments Index Refinements
Summary: In the February 2023 edition of the PSCU Payments Index, January’s growth rates finished better than December growth rates for credit and debit cards, with debit experiencing a bit stronger growth compared to prior months. In addition, we are beginning to see growth rates for transactions and purchases converge for both products as the rate of inflation slows. In this month’s Deep Dive, we outline several refinements to the PSCU Payments Index and introduce new measures on discretionary and non-discretionary consumer spending.
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Key takeaways include:
- Consumer spending growth on payment cards posted positive results for January, with debit card growth improving more than credit card growth when compared to December growth rates.
- The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) decreased on an annual basis to 6.4% in January, down by 0.1 percentage points. Shelter accounted for nearly half of the all-items increase.
- To provide greater context around the growth in consumer payments and consumer sentiment, this month we have categorized all merchant categories into discretionary and non-discretionary spending buckets.
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