"It seems consumers were very careful‚ since December showed one of the slowest increases in card transactions in the last few years‚" said Brad Gillis‚ chief executive for regulated products at BankservAfrica.
"The average value of all card transactions was only 5.6% higher than a year ago - which is just about what inflation is at the moment‚" he said.
The December consumer inflation rate was 5.7% year-on-year (y/y) according to Statistics SA.
Chief economist for economists.co.za Mike Schüssler agreed and explained that retail sales‚ the travel industry and service stations were unlikely to show strong growth in December in relation to December the previous year.
He observed that the y/y increase eased to 5.6% in December from 7.2% in September.
Since the Marikana shootings on 16 August last year‚ the SA economy has been hurt by a series of strikes. This resulted in several credit ratings agencies downgrading SA‚ while consumer and business confidence declined.
"South African consumers are certainly under a bit more pressure than before‚ as this is the lowest increase in average card values for a December holiday period since 2009‚" Schüssler said.
The data indicates consumers mainly spent money at supermarkets and service stations‚ followed by department stores and‚ surprisingly‚ restaurants.
"It also shows that only about a quarter of all spending on credit cards can be considered luxury spending - especially if the types of stores‚ where the spending took place‚ are considered‚" Schüssler explained.
By far the largest number of card transactions (over 18m) took place in grocery stores and supermarkets.
This was followed by 10.6m credit card transactions at petrol stations and their convenience stores.
These two categories represented about a third of all known card transactions for the month of December.
Surprisingly‚ fast-food restaurants had about 1.9m transactions - about a million less than sit-down restaurants and department stores.
According to Schüssler‚ this possibly reflects the fact that many transactions in this category are cash-based.
Fast-food restaurants had fewer credit card transactions than family clothing stores‚ convenience stores and liquor stores. The least number of transactions took place in the travel industry (including flights) and in furniture stores.
"However‚ both these categories had the highest average transaction value‚ which indicates a much higher percentage share of total spending‚" said Schüssler.
"For every one travel transaction‚ there are 13 transactions in a restaurant. For every hairdresser visit‚ there are 10 visits to either a garage or its convenience store. The figures probably do not fully reveal the importance of fast-food restaurants‚ but in most cases these figures do indicate that petrol stations and supermarkets are the places that South Africans visited most‚" he said.
Of the R116bn spent via credit cards‚ about R40bn could be considered retail spending‚ while about R20bn was for travelling‚ eating out and entertainment. A further R20bn was car related for petrol‚ tolls‚ services‚ repairs‚ parts‚ and so forth.
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