UAE's credit card spending surged 8.3% in the first quarter 2018.

Consumer spending on cards in the UAE increased by 8.33 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 driven by spend on food & entertainment and travel & hospitality categories, according to card spend data from Network International, the leading payment solutions provider in the Middle East and Africa region. Network Index of Consumer Spend (NICS), the first-of-its-kind cards spending index that tracks changes in consumer card spending in the UAE on a quarterly basis. The Index was at 142.47 as compared to 131.51 in the first quarter of 2017 according to a recent article published in Gulf News.