British consumers were spending less on credit and debit cards and reserving fewer restaurants than the week before, while the number of job advertisements increased sharply, weekly figures collected by the Office for National Statistics showed on Thursday.

Spending on credit and debit cards – which are not adjusted for inflation or the time of year-fell 3 percentage points from the previous week to 101 percent of the February 2020 average, based on the Bank of England’s CHAPS interbank payments for the week to May 19.

Restaurant reservations fell 2 percentage points, according to OpenTable’s figures, and the number of personnel ads on the recruitment website Adzuna was 7 percent higher.

Economists are watching closely to what extent sharply rising inflation is leading to a decline in British spending on non-essential goods and services.