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,reportedYonhap, 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.