Swedbank: Swedbank’s card data signalling a downward sentiment
Card spending and cash withdrawal in the Baltics dropped as state of emergency was announced, but recovered markedly in the second half of Q2. Q3 has largely not seen further improvements – transactions have remained fairly stable.
- Card spending and cash withdrawal in Q3 was increasing by 9% YoY in Lithuania, while in Latvia and Estonia it remained on average below last year’s levels (nearly 2% and 5%, respectively).
- As virus case count surged at the end of August and September, there were downward trends observed, especially in selected sectors.
- Cash withdrawal still lagging card spending. On average in Q3 cash withdrawal was 12% below last year’s level in Estonia, 9% in Latvia and unchanged in Lithuania.