South Koreans’ credit card spending overseas reached a new high in this year’s second quarter, the Bank of Korea reports.
Overseas card spending totaled 2 trillion won (US$1.74 billion or 1.36 billion Euros) during the quarter ended June 30, up 36% from 1.47 trillion won during the same period last year, according to the central bank.
The previous record for South Korean card spending outside the country was US$1.85 billion, which occurred in the third quarter of 2008.
“That interim period is when the Korean economy and the economy around the world was on a downslide,” an official from the central bank tells PaymentsSource. Increased traveling overseas with the economy improving has helped generate more spending abroad, he adds.
Each South Korean cardholder who traveled overseas spent an average of US$577 while traveling during the quarter, down 3.6% from US$599 a year earlier, the official says.
South Korea has 3.02 million credit card holders, central bank data show.
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