Korean overseas card spending up 4.2% in Q3

A rising number of outbound travelers.

This caused the quarterly growth of South Koreans' overseas credit card spending that picked up in the third quarter.

Overseas credit card bills totaled $2.37 billion in the July-September period, up 4.2 percent from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea.

The third-quarter growth accelerated from a 0.2 percent on-quarter gain in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, the number of outbound residents jumped 14.7 percent from three months earlier, and the Korean currency appreciated 3.1 percent to the dollar, compared with the end of June.

The number of credit card users rose 3.8 percent on-quarter to 5 million, while Koreans spent an average of $474 in credit overseas, up 0.4 percent from the second quarter.

The number of outbound travelers from South Korea jumped in the cited period due to the strong won.

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