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Consumers in Australia made 127.2 million credit and charge card transactions in July, up 2.7% from 123.8 million transactions during the same month last year, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank. The value of the credit card transactions increased only 0.7%, to AU$19.14 billion from AU$19 billion, the central bank says. Credit card repayments stood at AU$19.5 billion, up 1.5% from AU$19.8 billion, the central bank says. Debit card transactions in July increased 13%, to 168.2 million in July from 148.8 million a year ago. The value of the debit card transactions increased 11.5%, to AU$11.6 billion (US$10 billion or 6.8 billion euros) from AU$10.4 billion, the central bank says. Consumers are using some of their stimulus funds received from the government to pay down expensive debts, Matthew Sinclair, executive director at Carpadium Consulting, tells CardLine Global "It's not difficult to see how this has resulted in a drop in credit card use," he says. "I guess the interesting point is whether or not the drop off is greater than the slowing of the economy, and if it is, are we perhaps seeing a structural change in the use of personal debt?"
