Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) and Visa shared with the public the third edition of the analysis study examining the card expenditures made in Turkey in the process that started and continued with Covid-19. In the third Card Expenditure Analysis, comparisons are made covering the years 2020, 2021 and the first 3 months of 2022.

According to the prominent results, it is observed that expenditures in our country have increased with the acceleration of normalization and the expansion of vaccination starting from the summer months in 2021. Compared to 2020, it is seen that card spending increased by 55% year-on-year in 2021. Discretionary consumption expenditures, which decreased with the beginning of the pandemic, also increased with the normalization process that started after May 2021 and caught up with basic needs expenditures. It is also noteworthy that the average monthly card spending of the first quarter of 2022 grew by 85% compared to the previous year.

The Card Expenditures Analysis also includes comparisons between the USA, Italy and Sweden, which have followed different approaches during the pandemic, and Turkey. Compared to these three countries, it is seen that Turkey has entered an improvement trend above other countries in terms of card spending, especially after June 2021, and this continues to increase in the first quarter of 2022. In addition, it is revealed that all countries have entered an improvement trend in the same period and that spending has started to grow in real terms, especially as of the second half of 2021.

When the first quarter of 2021 and 2022 in Turkey is compared in terms of card spending, the fact that e-commerce grew by 90%, bank card expenditures grew by 118%, and contactless payments increased by 3 times, indicates that the building blocks underlying the ongoing growth in this field have not changed. The fact that the growth rate in e-commerce has increased from 72% to 90% compared to the same period of the previous year indicates the permanence of the trend. Another noteworthy rate is that spending with commercial credit cards has also grown by 94% during this period.

Compared to 2020 and 2021 year-on-year, the amount of spending made with cards grew by 62% in debit cards and 47% in credit cards. During the pandemic period, debit cards began to be used more in contactless and online shopping.

The analysis also focuses on card expenditures across different sectors. 3rd Card Expenditure Analysis shows that with the lifting of restrictions after May 2021 and the transition to the normalization process, almost all critical sectors have entered a recovery trend. In 2021, there is a remarkable increase in spending on travel (116%), food and beverage (81%) and clothing and accessories (58%) compared to the previous year. In the first quarter of 2022, while travel expenditures grew by 201%, this rate was 225% in food and beverage.

The first two Expenditure Analyses revealed that pandemic restrictions caused a decline especially in the food (restaurant) sector, and that the businesses that switched to takeaway service and started to take online orders recovered by adapting to digital transformation. The latest Expenditure Analysis reveals that with the transition to the normalization process, there is a serious recovery in the food sector as of May 2021 and this continues in 2022.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, who evaluated the results of the research, said, “Recently, we celebrated the World SME Day on June 27. We have been saying for years that SMEs are the backbone of our economy in our country, the engine of growth, the driving force of employment, and the cornerstones of economic and social development. We have a very strong and dynamic SME infrastructure. In this way, we can adapt very quickly to changing conditions. We can understand the reflection of this from the rise of e-commerce and contactless spending in the card spending report.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu concluded his words as follows: “In the first quarter of 2022, we see that monthly card expenditures grew by 85% compared to the previous year, and that travel expenditures and food and beverage growth of over 200% were realized. These are very good ratios.”

Visa Turkey General Manager Merve Tezel said, “Visa and TOBB's Card Expenditures Analysis has become a useful guide in terms of revealing the change experienced with the pandemic. The third of our study, in which the first and second wave of the pandemic and then the normalization process are regularly evaluated in terms of card spending, reveals that as of 2021, expenditures in Turkey have recovered faster compared to other countries. The positive trend continued to increase in the first quarter of 2022. The growth of online spending in 2021 with a significant acceleration, the exponential increase in contactless payments, and the increase in the number of bank cards marked 2021 in terms of card spending. Turkey's strong payments infrastructure and the ability of all sectoral players to adapt quickly became even more evident during the pandemic period. As Visa, we believe that we continue to contribute to our economy with the solutions we have developed based on the needs throughout this process.”