How COVID-19 affected retail, people, and their spending habits? Part 1
2020 is coming to an end, and it’s a perfect time to make conclusions and analyze how this year affected different areas of our lives. Today we’re going to start a series of posts about COVID-19 impact on retail, on our spending habits and will make some assumptions about 2021 too.
In this first part, we would like to cover some areas like countries’ investments in vaccine development, credit card spendings in the US, and job postings throughout the year.
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Countries’ investment into vaccine development and fiscal support
In March, when COVID-19 spread all around the world, the United Kingdom provided around 7.4K per capita to fiscal stimulus, including spending or tax cuts, the United States — 6.5K per capita, and France — 731 dollars per capita. Next month, France will spend the most significant amount of money — 10.5K per capita, Japan — 7.8K per capita, and the United States — 1.2K per capita. In May, China spent 1.1K per capita, and after that, for 3 months, only the United Kingdom spent around 630 dollars per capita. In September, France spent 1.8K per capita, and after that, the United Kingdom was the only country with an active fiscal stimulus program (1K per capita in October and 4K in November).
The United States allocated 410 billion for emergency investment in healthcare in March-April. Germany spent 66 billion, and a group of countries spent around 20 billion (China, the United Kingdom, Thailand).
In March, the United States spent 941 dollars per capita, Germany — 795 dollars per capita, and the United Kingdom — only 90 dollars per capita. After that, emergency investment significantly dropped. In April, the United States spent 308 dollars per capita, and in May, Thailand spent 274 dollars per capita. In the next months, only the United Kingdom spent 120 in July and 75 dollars per capita in September.
Japan is the leader in the COVID-19 vaccine investment overall (8.3 billion). In the second place, the United States (7.1 billion) and the third — surprisingly, Chile with 3.4 billion.
From March to July, countries spend not more than 12 dollars per capita on vaccine investment; in August, Chile is the leader by spending per capita (160 dollars per capita in August), in September — Australia with 80 dollars per capita, in October — Japan with 63 dollars per capita and in November — Australia with 40 dollars per capita.
COVID impact on spending and daily habits
As we can see from the graphic above, credit/debit card spending decreased by 11% in March-September 2020 compared to the same period last year, time spent at retail and recreation locations (-17.6%), job posting (-19.8%), net revenue for small businesses (-26.7%), number of small businesses open (-27.2%), time spent in workplaces (-32.9%).
At the beginning of the year (Jan-Feb 2020), credit/debit card spending was only a little bit slower than a year before (less than 0.5%). Still, in March-April, when coronavirus arrived in the United States, there was a significant spending drop on the West Coast (California -34.8% and Nevada -33.4% in April) and the East Coast (Vermont -37.8%, Rhode Island -36.4% and Delaware -35.6%). Red — worse than average, white — average, green — better than average.
There is a huge drop in the level of the job posting. We can see that in April, almost all states demonstrated from -25% to -45% drop. Nevada (-45.2%), Ohio (-39.6%), Mississippi (-38.4%). There was a comparatively good scenario in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island in April.
Thank you for reading our article. we can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comment section. 😃
Next time, we will discuss five economic scenarios for US states in 2021. Stay tuned and subscribe so you won’t miss new posts!
