Due to COVID-19 Spread... Last Year's Overseas Card Spending Amount Halved

Bank of Korea '2020 Resident Card Overseas Usage Performance'

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eun-byeol] Last year, when COVID-19 spread worldwide, the amount spent by domestic residents using cards overseas was only about half of the previous year's level.

According to the Bank of Korea on the 23rd, the overseas card (credit + check + debit) usage amount by residents in 2020 was 10.31 billion dollars. This is a 46.1% decrease compared to 19.12 billion dollars in 2019. When converted using the average annual KRW-USD exchange rate (1,180.1 KRW per dollar) for last year, the amount is 12.1668 trillion KRW.

The nearly 50% drop in overseas card usage by residents is attributed by the Bank of Korea to the significant decrease in outbound Korean travelers due to the spread of COVID-19 and the rise in the KRW-USD exchange rate. According to the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, the number of outbound Korean travelers dropped sharply by 85.1%, from 28.71 million in 2019 to 4.28 million last year. During the same period, the average annual KRW-USD exchange rate rose from 1,165.7 KRW to 1,180.1 KRW.

The number of cards used overseas last year was 49.303 million, down 31.4% from the previous year. The amount spent per card decreased from 266 dollars in 2019 to 209 dollars last year.

By type, credit cards accounted for 7.219 billion dollars, check cards 2.992 billion dollars, and debit cards 99 million dollars. Compared to a year earlier, usage amounts decreased by 48.6%, 39.2%, and 41.0%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the amount spent by non-residents such as foreigners using cards domestically last year was 4.052 billion dollars, down 59.1% from the previous year. The number of cards used also plummeted by 59.3%, from 38.613 million to 15.72 million. However, the amount spent per card by foreigners showed little change, from 257 dollars to 258 dollars.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.