Overseas card spending growth picks up in Q3

The quarterly growth of Koreans' overseas credit card spending picked up in the third quarter from three months earlier as the number of outbound travelers rose amid the won's gain, the central bank said Friday.

Overseas credit card bills totaled $2.37 billion in the July-September period, up 4.2 percent from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The third-quarter growth accelerated from a 0.2 percent on-quarter gain in the second quarter.

The BOK said the use of credit cards in foreign countries rose as the number of outbound travelers jumped in the cited period amid the local currency's ascent.

In the third quarter, the number of outbound residents jumped 14.7 percent from three months earlier, and the Korean currency appreciated 3.1 percent to the dollar, compared with the end of June.

The number of credit card users rose 3.8 percent on-quarter to 5 million, while Koreans spent an average of $474 in credit overseas, up 0.4 percent from the second quarter. (Yonhap)