News

Overseas Credit Card Spending Hits New High
23 Novembar 2007

South Korean residents' credit card spending in foreign countries climbed to a new high in the third quarter as more people traveled abroad amid the local currency's ascent against the U.S. dollar, the central bank said Friday.

In the July-September period, overseas credit card spending by South Koreans was tallied at $1.7 billion, up 32.8 percent from a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said.

The number of overseas credit card users rose 6.8 percent on-year to 2 million. Compared with three months earlier, the number of users fell 5.8 percent.

"With more South Koreans going abroad over time, per-capita credit card spending also sharply increased," the central bank said in a statement. On average, each South Korean put $846 on credit cards abroad, up 24.3 percent from a year earlier.

While 3.3 million Koreans went abroad, up 13.3 percent from the previous year, only 1.7 million foreigners traveled to Korea in the three-month period.

In the third quarter, the local currency appreciated 2.8 percent from a year earlier to average 928.17 won to the greenback, the central bank said

Source : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr