London
British consumer spending fell in December at the fastest rate in six months, with restaurants especially hard hit by a resurgence of coronavirus cases, a survey showed. Payment card provider Barclaycard said consumer spending contracted 2.3 percent in year-on-year terms last month, the biggest drop since June when most of the economy was still in lockdown. Spending fell by 65 percent in restaurants, the survey showed. By contrast, spending on groceries soared — something also reported in another survey published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) trade body.—AN
