We use UK transaction-level data during the Covid-19 pandemic to study whether mortgage payment holidays (PH) can act as a mechanism for smoothing household consumption following negative aggregate shocks. Our results suggest that mortgage PH were accessed by both households with pre-existing...

This paper uses transaction-level customer data from the largest bank in Denmark to estimate the change in consumer spending caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shutdown of the Danish economy. We find that aggregate spending was on average 27% below the counterfactual level without...

Besides other things, the effect of COVID-19 pandemic is evident in income and consumption pattern of the households. Income loss, fear of infection and movement restrictions has not only altered the amount and pattern of spending but has also changed the shopping behaviour of the consumers. In...

In April 2020, due to the introduction of lockdown, consumer demand significantly dropped. A year later, in April 2021, when the epidemiological situation caused ever less concern, the consumption of goods and services increased, almost recovering to the pre-pandemic level: for example, the...

We show the recovery in consumer spending in the United Kingdom through the second half of 2020 is unevenly distributed across regions. We utilise Fable Data: a real-time source of consumption data that is a highly correlated, leading indicator of Bank of England and Office for National...