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The latest cash withdrawal statistics released by Spark ATM Systems, shows the highest ever December average ATM withdrawal values recorded across the country, “indicating strong consumer spending and trading conditions for retailers and other businesses during the festive season”.

The Spark Cash Index (SCI), which measures the average value of cash withdrawals across more than 1,500 Spark ATM's throughout the country, reflected a 2.45% year-on-year increase in December 2011 beating the previous highest value of R447 recorded in December 2010 with a value of R458.

Month on month cash withdrawal values also revealed a significant increase of 8.75% from November to December 2011.

As Statistics SA's retail trade sales report only released figures two months in arrears, the SCI provided invaluable real-time insight into retail trading and consumer spending power in SA, Marc Sternberg, MD of Spark ATM Systems said.

“Since its launch in September 2007, the SCI has proven to be an accurate leading indicator of retail sales.

“The December 2011 results of the SCI indicates that we can expect the retail trade sales results for December 2011 to also reflect a positive increase over the same period in 2010.”

He added that the improvement was consistent with other positive local economic data recorded towards the end of 2011, such as lower civil judgements on debt, an improvement in job creation and higher tourism numbers. - I-Net Bridge