South Korea card payments up 7% in July despite COVID resurgence

Online card payments are 28% higher than in July 2020.

South Korea’s card payments seem undaunted by the recent surge of COVID-19 cases, rising 7% in July compared to the same month in 2020, reported Yonhap, based on data from Shinhan Card.

Spending made with credit, debit, and prepaid cards issued by the major card firm stood at $12.3b (KRW14.1t) in July, up from KRW13.1t won a year earlier, according to a report by the office of Rep. Park Kwang-on of the ruling Democratic Party.

The rise was primarily driven by online card spending soared 28.2% in July from a year earlier, with offline spending increasing 3.5% over the same period of comparison.

It was up 11.4% from the same month in 2019, six months before the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Whilst the amount doesn't include figures from seven other credit card issuers, it offers a glimpse of the state of card payments in the country during the COVID surge. Park's office noted that the recent resurgence of coronavirus cases seems to have had a limited impact on South Koreans' credit card spending.