Weekly retail footfall dropped 87% below pre-pandemic levels in the week to 23 October 2022, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Shopping centres only had 80% of the same footfall, while high street footfall was 87% and retail park footfall was 93%.

Week-on-week footfall also dropped slightly, with the overall springboard index at 97% compared to the week before.

Furthermore, credit and debit card purchases also fell, according to an experimental data series from the Bank of England (BoE).

While essential goods such as food and utilities and work-related spending recovered in line with inflation, "delayable" spending was only 83% of pre-pandemic levels, and social spending dropped slightly to 98%.

In the shorter term, all four spending categories decreased in the week to 23 October. Social spending saw the largest fall of 7%, while staple spending saw a smaller drop of 2%.

While one benefit of the data series is showing how spending changes across categories, the BoE said there were limitations:

"There is no adjustment for the longer-term effect of card payments representing an increasing share of all payment methods. As such the series is better suited to observing short-term changes rather than long-term trends."

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