LONDON, (Reuters) – British shoppers increased their spending pace in October despite rising inflation fears according to a Tuesday survey.

British Retail Consortium reported that retail spending increased 1.3% over October 2020. That’s a significant improvement on the 0.6% September growth rate. Many people have shifted to panic-buying fuel due to shortages of tanker drivers.

Paul Martin, UK head for retail at KPMG (which produces data with the BRC), stated that “the much-reported squeeze in household spending has not yet materialised as consumers seem happy to continue shopping.”

Last week, the Bank of England warned that rising prices would impact consumer demand. The Bank of England projected that April inflation would be almost 5% due to post lockdown supply chain bottlenecks as well as surging energy costs.

Martin stated that the lack of stock availability was creating strong pricing dynamics, which meant there were no discounts for the Christmas season.

Barclaycard conducted a separate survey to determine if consumers have increased spending in general, which was 14.2% more than October 2019.

Barclaycard reported that entertainment spending increased as more people went to the cinemas for James Bond films. There was also an increase in digital subscriptions, and travel expenses as there were fewer restrictions.

Because of the distortions caused due to pandemic lockdowns, it does not currently compare 2020 sales to its surveys.