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). 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. Private spending gained 5.3 per cent last year, decelerating from the previous year’s 8.7 per cent advance, the data showed.
