Close panel

Close panel

Close panel

Close panel

The road to economic recovery: the evolution of COVID-19´s impact on consumption

In spring 2020, BBVA Research began to analyze the COVID-19 impact on consumption in its geographies thanks to the use of big data technologies. The aggregated and anonymized transactional data of the millions of transactions carried out with BBVA cards or registered in BBVA´s point of sales terminals are a very useful tool for monitoring the economic evolution of the different countries where the bank operates.

Users can adapt BBVA Research's interactive graphics (which are optimized for PC desktop viewing) as follows:

In the graphs, you can choose the elements you want to analyze: country, sector of the economy, shopping channel (physical, online, ATMs, ...), etc. By clicking on each of the countries in the legends it allows you to hide or display them.

Within each graph, in the upper right menu, you can (from right to left): compare all the data for a specific time period or view them individually by series, place the values ​​per axis of each series at any time time, reset axes, return to the entire graph from an interval, reduce or increase by zooming, move the graph, zoom in at a certain time interval (activating the magnifying glass, then clicking on an area of ​​the graph and dragging the cursor to select the interval) or download the graph in image format.

The following is a month by month compilation of content that shows the economic recovery in Spain and the world:

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

Card spending in Spain increases 40% in two years

The report published by BBVA Research shows how this increase in October compared to the same month in 2019 has been driven, in particular, by the recovery of purchases with foreign cards, which surpassed the records of two years ago for the first time since the start of the health crisis. Both card-present (32%) and card-not-present (75%) transactions gained traction. The evolution of demand for services in October was stronger than that for goods. Its weight in spending reached 62%, 6 and 12 percentage points higher than in the same period of 2019 and 2020.

OCTOBER 8, 2021

Growth in consumption stabilized at August levels in most countries

The ‘Impact of COVID-19 on consumption in real time and high frequency’ report, published by BBVA Research, shows how e-commerce maintains the pace of growth in almost all countries, while the use of cash loses ground and spending on services outpaces spending on goods. Only Colombia shows a significant drop, while Argentina stands out with an upward trend. Mexico, Colombia and Peru have seen a decline in hotels, while Argentina has improved mainly in the tourism sectors. Turkey and Spain maintain growth in all sectors.

OCTOBER 8, 2021

Card spending in September was 37% higher than in the same month of 2019

The ‘Impact of COVID-19 on consumption in real time and high frequency’ report, published by BBVA Research, shows how card spending in September exceeded September 2019 levels by 37%. Card purchases were higher than those made in the same month in 2019 in all sectors except beauty, fashion and travel. Other services, food, restaurants and leisure continued to lead the recovery in spending. In line with purchases, card cash withdrawals increased to just 1% below those of Sep-19 (-6% in August). Withdrawals remained at 21%.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

BBVA Research presents index to measure business and household investments in real time

BBVA Research keeps making progress in its project to measure the economy in real time and high definition, adds index to measure investment and its components to its range of Big Data indicators.