S.Korea's overseas plastic card spending halves in Q2
Source: Xinhua | 2020-08-28
South Korea's overseas plastic card spending halved in the second quarter as the number of locals going abroad tumbled on the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Thursday.
Local residents spent 1.87 billion U.S. dollars overseas through credit, debt and check cards in the April-June quarter, down 48.7 percent from 3.65 billion dollars tallied in the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It was down 60.3 percent from a year earlier.
The sharp fall came as the number of South Koreans going abroad dropped to 120,000 in the second quarter from 3.7 million in the first quarter. During the fourth quarter of last year, the figure was 6.59 million.
Locals refrained from travelling overseas due to the fear of the COVID-19 outbreak across the world.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases here grew in triple digits for the past weeks, boosting worry about the COVID-19 resurgence in the country.
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