Card spending in S Korea slows down in 2023

Seoul: Daily card spending in South Korea gained 6.2 per cent last year, but its growth slowed from the previous year amid a slump in domestic demand, central bank data showed on Monday.

Holders of credit and debit cards spent an average 3.3 trillion won ($2.46 billion) per day last year, compared with 3.1 trillion won the previous year, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK), Yonhap news agency reported.

Credit card spending rose 6.9 per cent on-year to a daily average of 2.62 trillion won, slowing from the previous year's 13.5 percent on-year gain, the data showed. The country's real gross domestic product -- a key measure of economic growth -- increased 1.4 per cent last year, but marked a slowdown from a 2.6 per cent advance in 2022 and 4.3 per cent growth in 2021, and the lowest since a 0.7 per cent contraction in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.