Israeli credit card spending hit record $36 billion this summer
Spending surged 7.9% in July and August compared with last summer, while gas station spending jumped 13.8% as higher fuel prices pushed up the cost of filling the tank.
During July and August, Israelis spent a record NIS 109 billion ($36.2 billion) on credit cards, according to data from Shva, the company that operates Israel’s national payment systems. The figure represents a 7.9% increase compared with the same two months last year.
Over just four years, Israelis’ credit card spending in July and August has increased by more than 40%.
The fuel sector illustrates the impact of this summer’s price increases. Spending at gas stations reached a record daily average of NIS 68.8 million ($22.9 million) in August, for a total of NIS 2.13 billion ($708 million), up 13.8% from August 2025.
The increase was driven almost entirely by higher prices rather than greater consumption. Gasoline cost NIS 8.09 per liter in August, compared with NIS 7.07 in August 2025.
July itself set a record for monthly credit card spending, at approximately NIS 55 billion ($18.3 billion).
Credit card spending in August reached NIS 54 billion ($17.9 billion), up 10% from August last year. The daily average declined by 1.4% from July to NIS 1.75 billion ($581 million), excluding foreign-currency spending, partly because more Israelis traveled abroad in August than in July.
Supermarket chains accounted for the largest share of spending in August, rising 6% to NIS 6.3 billion ($2.09 billion). Restaurant spending was next, jumping 11.2% to NIS 4.2 billion ($1.40 billion), while spending in the electronics and fashion sectors each increased 8.2% to approximately NIS 3 billion ($997 million).
At the bottom of the list was Israel’s aviation sector, where spending fell 0.8% to NIS 427 million ($142 million). The decline was mainly attributed to demand shifting toward foreign airlines, whose transactions are not included in Shva’s data.
Consumer behavior in August was also marked by a return to malls and street-front stores. Average daily spending on in-person transactions reached a record NIS 758 million ($252 million), with total spending in physical stores rising 8.1% to NIS 23.5 billion ($7.81 billion) for the month.
Online spending showed some moderation compared with July. The daily average fell 4.2% to NIS 988 million ($328 million), although online spending was still up 11.5% year over year, reaching NIS 30.6 billion ($10.2 billion).
The volume of cash withdrawals from bank ATMs stood at NIS 5.9 billion ($1.96 billion) in August, roughly unchanged from August last year. The stability in cash withdrawals suggests that consumers have not been rapidly abandoning cash, and that much of the increase in credit card spending reflects higher prices and overall nominal growth in the economy rather than a wholesale shift from cash to cards.
