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The number of credit card accounts in Thailand increased 8.4% between October and the same month last year, to 12.9 million from 11.9 million, according to the Bank of Thailand, the country's central bank. Nonbanking financial institutions experienced the greatest growth rate in credit card accounts, 10.2%, to 6.5 million from 5.9 million. Foreign issuers in Thailand experienced a 7.7% growth rate, to 1.4 million accounts from 1.3 million, the Bank of Thailand says. The overall growth rate for Thai issuers was 6.5%, to 4.9 million credit card accounts from 4.6 million. For the first 10 months of this year, credit card spending in Thailand reached 76.4 billion baht (US$2.2 billion or 1.6 billion euros), up 1.5% from 75.3 billion baht for the same period last year.
