(Bloomberg) -- Mastercard Inc. warned it’s been seeing a slowdown in the growth of overseas spending on its cards in recent weeks as the highly contagious omicron variant disrupts travel and sparks fresh rounds of lockdowns.

While cross-border volume on Mastercard’s network soared 53% in the final three months of the year, trouncing the 49% average of analyst estimates, the firm said growth in the first three weeks of this year slowed to 47%.

Mastercard now believes net revenue for the first quarter will climb by a percentage in the “high teens,” while operating expenses will jump by a percentage in the “low teens,” the company said in a statement Thursday. Analysts were predicting revenue would rise 22% and expected a 15% jump in expenses.

Shares of the company fell 2.2% to $337 at 8:15 a.m. in early New York trading.

Before omicron started to bite, Mastercard and Visa Inc. were benefiting as economies around the world slowly reopened and consumers got back to traveling and dining out. Purchase volume on Mastercard’s network soared to a record in the final three months of the year, which helped boost revenue 27% to $5.2 billion.

“We had a strong fourth quarter as spending trends continued to improve, with Q4 cross-border spending now above pre-pandemic levels,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Miebach. said in the statement. “We are optimistic about the coming year as consumers, businesses and governments have become more adaptable to the changing environment.”

Mastercard has been on a buying spree in recent quarters and announced plans to purchase four companies in the final three months of last year. Those included the artificial-intelligence startup Dynamic Yield Inc. and the cryptocurrency company CipherTrace.

“We are adding to our unique services capabilities with the planned acquisition of Dynamic Yield, which creates individually tailored experiences for consumers across digital channels,” Miebach said.

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