Credit card spending in June continued to retreat, plunging 27.76 percent annually to NT$237.1 billion (US$8.04 billion) — the lowest for the month in six years — due to weakened consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic and cardholders delaying paying income tax, data released on Tuesday by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed.
Monthly credit card spending used to be the highest in June, with NT$328.2 billion spent last year — a record for a single month — as consumers put their income tax on a credit card in May, which counted as June spending, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Lin Chih-chi (林志吉) told a news conference in New Taipei City.
This year, the Ministry of Finance delayed the tax deadline until June 30 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, so some people paid their taxes later than usual, increasing credit card spending last month, Lin said.
Border controls led to a reduction in overseas credit card spending, such as airline tickets and accommodations, a decline too big to be offset by increasing domestic travel, the commission said.
The 27.76 percent decline in June is the biggest decrease so far this year, compared with a decline of 20 percent annually to NT$206.2 billion in April and a decline of 19.86 percent to NT$214.7 billion in May, the data showed.
For the first half of this year, credit card spending retreated 13.6 percent year-on-year to NT$1.37 trillion, the data showed.
The drop in credit card spending was joined by a decline of 2.8 percent annually in the number of newly issued credit cards, 3.27 million cards in the first six months, which could be attributed to consumers losing interest in paying with plastic, the commission said.
E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) issued 463,800 new credit cards in the first six months of this year, followed by Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) with 423,900 cards and CTBC Bank (中信銀行) with 382,100 cards, the data showed.
By contrast, electronic payment businesses have not been affected by the pandemic, with combined spending continuing to advance 34 percent year-on-year to NT$4.57 billion in June, the data showed.
That could be because most consumers used e-payment tools for daily consumption such as dining, drinking and grocery shopping, which increased steadily despite the pandemic, the commission said.
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