Credit card spending down 7.5% due to virus, electronic payments up 43%By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterCredit card spending in the nation fell for a second consecutive month in July, declining 7.5 percent annually to NT$335.4 billion, as consumers purchased less amid a local outbreak of COVID-19, the Financial Supervisory Commission said. In May, when the outbreak began, credit card spending rose 11.6 percent annually to NT$239.6 billion, data released by the commission on Thursday showed. However, credit card spending declined 9.19 percent to NT$215.3 billion in June, as the outbreak affected private consumption, the commission said. Although July’s credit card spending of NT$335.4 billion was down from a year earlier, it was the second-highest for that month, but the momentum came from tax payments, not regular spending, the commission said. For the first seven months, the nation’s cumulative credit card spending totaled NT$1.77 trillion, up 1.78 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

Source: Taipei Times September 12, 2021 15:56 UTC