Overseas credit card spending by South Koreans soared to a fresh high in the first quarter of this year as more travelers went overseas amid low oil prices, central bank data showed Thursday.
Overseas credit card bills totaled $3.21 billion in the first three months of the year, up 0.5 percent from three months earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea. From a year earlier, the amount climbed 13.8 percent.
The first-quarter amount broke the previous quarterly record of $3.2 billion recorded in the third quarter of 2014.
The BOK attributed the first-quarter increase to low crude prices and the Lunar New Year’s holiday that fell on Feb. 18-22 this year.
The number of outbound travelers jumped 13.1 percent on-quarter to 4.7 milllion in the January-March period, according to the central bank.
Credit card spending by foreigners visiting Korea, meanwhile, slumped 13 percent on-quarter to $2.76 billion in the first quarter as fewer foreign tourists arrived here.
A total of 3.21 foreigners visited South Korea in the first quarter, down 9 percent from three months earlier, the central bank said. (Yonhap)
