Record 80 million card transactions in May – AIB

The latest AIB Spend Trend for May shows that overall spending increased 9% year on year and 2% month on month.

The cumulative spend from January to May 2025 is also up 9% when compared with the same time in 2024, indicating that consumer confidence remains strong.

According to the figures, May broke records for the most card transactions in a month, with just over 80 million online and in-store transactions by AIB customers.

The data shows that grocery spending continues to rise, with an 8% increase year on year.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, AIB Head of Consumer Adrian Moynihan said the increase is a combination of inflation and more spending.

“If you look at inflation at 1.5% or 2% over the course of this year versus what we’re seeing come through in our numbers which is grocery spend up by 8%, inflation is a factor,” said Mr Moynihan.

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“But what we are seeing is increasing consumer spend across groceries in particular. That’s something that has been consistent throughout the course of this year so far as well.”

Good weather and big events also had a part to play in boosting spending last month.

Ticket transactions on the 30 May were 76% above average on the day as Metallica tickets for their 2026 concert went on sale.

Mr Moynihan said since they started conducting this report they’ve seen that both fine and bad weather have an impact on spend.

“When we had the storms earlier this year, we could see a big increase in hardware as people did repairs to homes and businesses, and equally, when there’s good weather, we can see it as well”,” he said.

“We saw it for example in May with pub spending up by about 10%, that beer garden type weather certainly kicked through and also hardware was up by 3% in May as well as people spent more time in gardens and on DIY,” he added.

There also was an 8% month on month increase in spending on clothes, with just over a quarter of those buying them aged between 35 and 44. Almost three quarters of all clothes were bought by women.

People in Cavan spent the most on clothes per transaction (€72.59), while people in Westmeath spent the least (€58.94).