Hong Kong sees 9.1% uptick in credit card spending in Q1

There were fewer transactions, but the value went up.

A total of HK$252.8b credit card transaction value was recorded in Hong Kong during the first three months of 2024, according to data from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released in June 2024.

This is a 9.1% increase from the same quarter in 2023, and 3.2% higher than in Q4 2023.

Of this, HK$185.2b or 73.3% of the total value was linked to retail spending in Hong Kong, HK$58.3b or 23.1% are from retail spending overseas, and HK$9.3b or the remaining 3.7% are due to cash advances.

A total of 302.34 million transactions were recorded in Q1, 0.3% lower than in Q4 2023, suggesting that credit card users made bigger purchases.

In total, there were 19.98 million credit cards in circulation issued by authorized institutions under one of eight card operators: American Express, Discover Financial, EPS, JCB, JETCO, MasterCard, UnionPay, and Visa.

In terms of debit cards, a total of HK$75.3b in value was recorded for the period across 48.3 million transactions. This represents a 3% rise in value and a 0.7% decrease in transaction volumes compared to Q4 2023. 

In other news, Hong Kong's financial industry recently introduced a new credit scoring system in the city.