Barclaycard’s monthly report showed consumer spending (including retail sales, as well as spending on items like travel and visits to cinemas and pubs) dropped 6% year-on-year in March. That came as measures to tackle coronavirus were introduced, although some retailers saw strong growth.Spending at supermarkets rose 21.3% and specialist food & drink stores 30.5%. Online purchases rose 5.5% while in-store transactions dropped 4%. And confidence in the UK economy fell to 25%.

The month was largely about people buying essentials, with spending in this area up 11.6%. But non-essentials fell 12.9%. As the month included two weeks when shops were allowed to remain open, it suggests that non-essential spending is set to have plummeted even further when April’s figures come out. On the upside, discount stores saw increased demand as shoppers sought value for money, rising 25.2%. And pharmacy, health & beauty was up 0.5%, although spending here is likely to have been skewed towards essentials.Meanwhile, the monthly British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG retail sales report also showed a sharp decline. Total retail sales fell 4.3% according to this report, compared to a 1.8% decline for the same month last year. It was the biggest decline in the report’s 25-year history.In the first three weeks of March, sales actually rose 12% but then plunged 27% once the lockdown started.