Phoenix sees decline in consumer spending growth, report shows

A recent report on the Local Consumer Commerce Index for August 2016, shows that Phoenix is among 12 U.S. cities in the report to see a decline in consumer spending growth with a 1.68 percent decline in growth.

The JPMorgan Chase Institute Local Consumer Commerce Index  reports that all but three of the 15 major U.S. cities in the study experienced negative year-over-year spending growth. Only Denver, Atlanta and Seattle saw growth.

Denver experienced the fastest growth of all cities studied at 5 percent year-over-year. Across the 15 cities, consumer spending at restaurants contributed 0.2 percentage points to growth, along with spending on services, which contributed more than any other product type that month at 0.9 percentage points.

Overall, the year-over-year spending growth declined by 1.9 percent, the largest dip since May 2016, the report notes.

“August appears to have brought more of the same trends – with decreases in spending on durables and fuel and increased spending on restaurants and services,” said Diana Farrell, president and CEO of the JPMorgan Chase Institute. “The difference was a very sharp slowdown in spending at small and large businesses. Growth in these businesses has tended to offset declines in mid-sized businesses in recent months, and in August, this growth just wasn’t there.”

Phoenix joins cities like Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York that saw a recent decline in consumer spending growth.

The JPMorgan Chase Institute Local Consumer Commerce Index is constructed from over 16 billion anonymized credit and debit card transactions from over 54 million Chase customers, capturing actual transactions to understand consumer commerce, instead of self-reported measures.

Declines were seen from small businesses, at .2 percent, and mid-sized businesses, which subtracted 1.9 percent from overall growth in August, the report shows.

Durables and fuel spending also detracted from spending growth, with a 1.5 percent decrease in durables. And fuel has also seen a 1.5 percent decrease, which is largely attributed to a decrease in prices at the pump.