Credit cards expenses of the first quarter for the foreign travel amounted

Credit cards (including a debit card) expenses of the first quarter (January to March in 2002) for the foreign travel, have considerably increased over last year

Bank of Korea (BOK) announced on 12th of the month, that total expenses which Korean people spent with credit cards up to the end of March are USD 568 million (approx. KRW 700 billion) increased by 34.9% over the last year.

Credit cards consumers in foreign countries have increased by 32.6% to 1,054,000 people. Card expense per person is USD 539 increased by 1.7%.

In 2000 and until the first quarter of the last year, quarterly credit cards expense trended to sharply increase by 38.0∼80.8% over the same period of the previous year. However, since the second quarter of the past year, the increase rate has decreased by 18.2~24.5%. Myeonghee Lee, a deputy chief of International Department, BOK mentioned “as a feeling of anxiety on foreign traveling due to a terrorism in USA gradually faded away, many people traveled abroad during vacation and New Year’s Day and so the credit cards expenses have increased remarkably. As the credit card expense increases for foreign traveling, this expense is 34.1% of total expenses of foreign traveling, increased by 6.6% over the same period of the last year. However, Korean consumers who use the credit card in the foreign countries are 62.4% of total foreign travelers, and are considerably lower than a rate of foreigner’s credit cards in Korea (81.0%).

On the other hand, total expenses that foreigners spend through credit cards, are USD 317,000,000 decreased by 21.7% over the same period of the last year, and the credit card expense per person is USD 324 decreased by 29.7% over the last year..

Sang-Chul Kim sckim007@donga.com