Easing of Lockdown Measures Worldwide... Resident Overseas Card Spending Up 80% Year-on-Year

Bank of Korea '2021 Q2 Resident Card Overseas Usage Performance'

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eun-byeol] As stringent lockdown measures for COVID-19 prevention have eased, overseas card spending has increased by 80% compared to a year ago.

According to the '2021 Q2 Resident Card Overseas Usage Performance' released by the Bank of Korea on the 30th, the overseas usage amount of resident cards (credit + check + debit) in Q2 was $3.37 billion, up 31.7% from $2.56 billion in Q1. Compared to the same period last year, this is a remarkable 80.0% increase.

It is presumed that travel expenses increased as some movement restrictions were eased locally overseas. In fact, as movement restrictions eased abroad, Google's mobility index for the US dropped by 16.1% in Q1 this year but the decline narrowed to 1.6% in Q2. In the UK, the decline also reduced from -26.0% to -3.5%.

By card type, compared to the previous quarter, credit card usage increased by 14.1%, check card by 72.8%, and debit card by 48.3%. The number of cards used was 11.489 million, up 2.2% from the previous quarter, and the usage amount per card was $294, up 28.9%. Compared to the same period last year, the usage amount per card increased by 76.5%.

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