April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s personal credit card spending rose 9.7 percent on-year in the first quarter, a local credit card association said on April 30.

According to the data compiled by the Credit Finance Association, purchases made with plastic reached 156.4 trillion won (US$146.30 billion) in the January-March period, up from 142.5 trillion won in the same period last year.

The data includes transactions on credit, debit and prepaid cards. Cash advances, overseas spending and card loans were not counted.

“The PyeongChang Winter Olympics appear to have boosted demand,” the CFA said in a release, citing a jump in daily highway traffic during the Olympic period in February and in the number of passengers using the country’s KTX bullet trains.

“Rising demands for electronic appliances against fine dust as well as growing spending for the Lunar New Year took major parts,” the association added.

During the first two months of this year, sales of electronics surged 20.5 percent from a year earlier, and the gross turnover of the country’s seven major retailers for the Lunar New Year advanced 17.4 percent on-year, according to government data.

But spending by corporate credit cards tumbled 22.1 percent in the first quarter compared to the previous year to 37 trillion won after the government called on credit card firms in April last year to refrain from offering incentives to companies that pay taxes with plastic.

In all, first quarter credit card spending stood at 193.3 trillion won during the first three months of 2018, inching up 1.7 percent from a year earlier, while the number of credit card payments advanced 11.6 percent to 4.47 billion, according to the FCA.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)