Dubai – Mubasher: Retail card spending has boomed in the UAE during 2018 on the back of the digitalisation of financial services in the country.

Last year, consumer card spends grew 6% year-on-year, pushed up by e-commerce spends, which soared 48%, compared to 2017 figures, senior vice president and head of payments at Mashreq Bank, Pankaj Kundra, said.

“In terms of sector-wise performance, growth was driven by food and beverage, which increased by 20%, followed by a 16% growth in supermarket spends. Hospitality continued growing with a modest increase of 2%,” the top official added.

Kundra noted that retail card spends in the retail segment including clothing, shoes, and bags levelled up 3% in the full year of 2018, while Healthcare spending comprising hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies did not see much change, standing at 1% growth last year.

“2018 was also a breakthrough year for contactless payments with a quarter of all UAE transactions contact-less. This was driven primarily by both the increased penetration of contact-less cards and usage of digital wallets,” he remarked.

However, retail card spends shrank in some other sectors, among them electronics and automobiles, which fell by 15% and 9%, respectively, Kundra revealed.

Kundra concluded that he was optimistic regarding the growth of the volume of retail card payments in the UAE, asserting that it would see more growth from 2019 towards the holding of Expo 2020 event.