As described in an earlier post, we are using credit and debit card spending data provided by Opportunity Insights to track sales tax trends in California. To do this, we use an index—a weighted average of different spending categories—designed to track movements in California’s sales tax base. In this post, we update the index to include August data.
Card Data: Growth Continued in August... In August, the spending index grew for the fourth month in a row, increasing by roughly three percent from August to July (seasonally adjusted).
…But Spending Remained Below January Level. Although spending has been growing steadily, it still has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. In August, spending was roughly three percent below its January level (seasonally adjusted).
