Overseas Card Spending Exceeds $5 Billion in Q1

Published on 2018/05/20 | Source

Koreans' overseas card spending marked an all-time high in the first quarter of this year amid a record number of Koreans visiting other countries.

The Bank of Korea said on Thursday that Koreans spent some US$5.07 billion abroad in the January-March period, the first time that the quarterly amount has exceeded $5 billion. This was an increase from 11.4 percent from the previous quarter, the largest since the first quarter of 2010, and a whopping 26 percent hike from the same period last year.

The BOK attributed the growth to the rising number of Koreans who went overseas during this period, due to the long winter vacation and Lunar New Year break.

"Around 7.43 million Koreans went overseas in the first three months of the year, up 8.2 percent from the previous quarter. They led the record amount of overseas card spending", the central bank said.

Meanwhile, card spending by foreign visitors to Korea stood at $2.07 billion in the first quarter, down 1.1 percent on-quarter and 15.5 percent on-year.=