Overseas card spending rises in Q2 on direct purchases from Chinese shopping sites: BOK

Koreans' overseas card spending rose more than 3 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter, driven by a rise in overseas direct purchases, particularly from Chinese e-commerce platforms, central bank data showed Tuesday. The amount of money spent overseas by Koreans with credit and debit cards stood at $5.52 billion in the April-June period, up 3.3 percent from the previous quarter's $5.35 billion, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). Compared with a year earlier, the amount went up 6.5 percent. "Despite a decline in demand for overseas travel, overseas card spending rose as direct purchases from Chinese online shopping malls grew markedly," a BOK official said. The number of outbound travelers sank 13.2 percent on-quarter to 6.77 million in the second quarter. Direct purchases from Chinese online shopping platforms, such as AliExpress and Temu, surged 24.3 percent from the previous quarter, reaching $1.04 billion, according to the data by Statistics Korea. Meanwhile, non-residents' card spending within Korea hit an all-time high of $3.78 billion in the secondWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times