Debit card spending in S. Korea surges in H1

Daily debit card spending in South Korea jumped in the first half of this year on the back of state tax benefits and other incentives, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The average amount of daily transactions processed through debit cards came to 491 billion won ($439.76 million) in the January-June period, up 7.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea.

The figure has been on a constant rise over the past several years, as consumers can enjoy diverse benefits including an extended rate of tax deduction on debit card spending and annual membership fee exemption.

(Yonhap)

Of all spending with plastic, debit cards accounted for the highest ever proportion of 21.1 percent in the first half, the BOK noted.

Meanwhile, credit card spending grew 3.7 percent to hit another high of 1.82 trillion won. Spending with personal credit cards came to 1.4 trillion won, up 8.3 percent on-year, while corporate credit card spending skidded 9.4 percent to 417 billion won, according to the data.

In all, card spending per day on average during the first six months of this year went up 4.4 percent on-year to 2.32 trillion won, the central bank said. (Yonhap)