Credit card spending in Taiwan hits $47.05b in H1

Purchases via credit card nearly hit the $200b in all six months except February.

Credit card spending in Taiwan hit $47.05b (NT$1.44t) in the first six months of the year as Taiwanese consumers accelerated their pace of consumption, reports Focus Taiwan. 

The figure is equivalent to around 54% of the $85.61b (NT$2.62t) registered for the full-year of 2017, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Commission.

Also read: Taiwan has the highest ATM density in the world

The spike in spending came after consumers registered the highest-ever monthly credit card spending of $9.74b (NT$298.2b) in June which has become a peak season for local credit card business.

Wang Li-chun, deputy director of the FSC's Banking Bureau told Focus Taiwan that a greater number of consumers are using their credit cards during the tax season.

Credit card spending almost breached the $6.53b (NT$200b) mark in Taiwan except when it was just a whisker short at $6.47b (NT$198.1b) in February.

There were a total of 42.61 million credit cards in circulation in Taiwan, which represents a 0.42% MoM and 3.62% YoY increase.

Consumers in Taiwan spent $372.49m (NT$11.4b) through the three major foreign mobile payment systems -- Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay -- in the first half of this year.