Overseas card spending by South Koreans rose 65 percent during the "golden" holiday period in May from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday.

The data compiled by KB Kookmin Card Co. showed that purchases made by its credit and debit card customers in foreign countries amounted to 25.4 billion won ($22.7 million) during the April 29-May 9 holiday period, compared with 15.4 billion won from the same period last year.

South Koreans could have enjoyed up to an 11-day "golden" holiday from late April to early May.

The hike was driven by a rise in the number of South Koreans going overseas during the holiday.

Overseas card spending in China came to 835 million won during the April 29-May 9 holiday, down from 1.19 billion won a year earlier.

The decline is widely blamed on the fall in the number of South Koreans going to China amid a diplomatic feud between the two neighbors over the deployment of a US missile defense system in South Korea. (Yonhap)