70% decline in payments of credit cards abroad within 3 months

Last updated: June 15, 2017 11:52 pm

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TO GO WITH SKorea-creditcard-retail-economy FEATURE by Nam You-SunIn a picture taken on April 1, 2011 a South Korean cashier swipes credit card to a card register machine at a shop in Seoul. South Koreans' usage of credit cards as a percentage of total consumption reached 54.9 percent in the first half of 2010 compared to 34.6 percent in the US and 43.9 percent in Britain, Seoul's Credit Finance Association says. AFP PHOTO / PARK JI-HWAN (Photo credit should read PARK JI-HWAN/AFP/Getty Images)

The foreign electronic payments fell by 70% in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, recording $226.7m, down from $751.4mn in the same period last year, according to a statement by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

The CBE said in a statement that the decline in payments using credit cards contributed to the decline in travel payments during Q1 of this year, reaching $448.3m compared to about $1.2bn in the same period last year. As a result, the travel balance achieved a surplus of $808.4m from January to March 2017 compared to a deficit of $641.2m during the corresponding period of 2016.