Overseas credit card spending by South Koreans hit a fresh record in the first half of 2015 on widened duty-free benefits and a rise in the number of outbound travelers, central bank data showed Monday.
  

Daily overseas credit card bills reached a record 28.6 billion won ($24.3 million) in the first six months of the year, up 21.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea.
  

The on-year growth rate also marked a five-year high since the second half of 2010, when it posted a 26.9 percent jump.
  

The BOK attributed the first-half increase to a tax code revision that increases travelers' duty-free allowance to $600 from $400.
  

The number of South Koreans going overseas during the six-month period rose 20.2 percent on-year to 9.15 million from 7.61 million.
  

On the other hand, foreigners' credit card spending in South Korea slowed down in the first six months of the year, apparently due to the May-to-July outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which reached its peak in June.
  

Purchases made by foreign visitors grew 11.6 percent on-year to 5.4 trillion won, slowing from a 40 percent annual jump last year, according to separate data.
  

The number of foreign visitors plunged 41 percent on-year to 750,925 in June from 1.27 million a year ago. (Yonhap)