Korea's card spending jumps 4.8% on year in Q1

The total card approval amount stood at 290.9 trillion won ($211 billion) in the January-March period on improving consumer sentiment and a rise in online shopping, according to data by the Credit Finance Association of Korea on Tuesday.

A crowd of people arrive at Incheon International Airport on Feb. 12. Card spending jumped 4.8 percent on year in the first quarter in Korea on recovery of consumer sentiment driven by overseas travel. [NEWS1]

Card spending in Korea jumped 4.8 percent on year during the first quarter on a rise in overseas travel and online shopping.

The total card approval amount stood at 290.9 trillion won ($211 billion) in the January-March period on improving consumer sentiment and a rise in online shopping, according to data by the Credit Finance Association of Korea on Tuesday.

The number of card approvals also advanced 6.2 percent in the same period to 6.77 billion.

Korea’s consumer sentiment index stood at 100.7 in April, unchanged from a month earlier, according to a survey conducted by the Bank of Korea.

A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists.

Transactions for online shopping jumped 11.6 percent on year in the first two months of this year to 39.28 trillion won, according to data compiled by Statistics Korea. The growth was driven by spending on food, beverages and agricultural products as well as online coupons, the association said.

Online shopping for food, beverages and agricultural, livestock and fishery products jumped 19.7 percent in the first two months of this year compared to the same period a year earlier. Spending on e-coupon services advanced 29.5 percent over the same period.

A rebound in overseas travel also boosted card spending.

The number of passengers on international flights in the first quarter soared 55.6 percent on year to 21.61 million, according to data compiled by the Korea Civil Aviation Association. Sales at duty free shops surged 32.8 percent in January and February to 2.51 trillion won, Statistics Korea data showed.

The approval amount for individual cards grew 5.9 percent on year in the first quarter to 242.2 trillion won, compared to 5.8 percent the previous quarter.

The approval amount for corporate cards inched up 0.5 percent over the same period to 48.8 trillion won.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]