Spending on social activities was down 5% in December compared to the previous month.
New Bank of Ireland data shows the amount spent on groceries using debit and credit cards was up 12% and clothing by 11%
Transport saw a 25% drop and there was a fall-off in accommodation spending of 10%.
John O’Beirne from Bank of Ireland says some sectors saw strong performances last month.
"I guess when you take in things like Omicron hitting, and what people had expected to emerge maybe didn't come out in the same fashion as we would have though.
"We saw a couple of interesting trends notwithstanding that.
"The new 'going out' became going to the cinema which shot up over 2-0% in terms of spend, along with spend in terms of game stores etc."
