Credit card spending soars with increasing living costs: BB

Credit card debt has surged as consumers struggle to keep up with the high cost of living amid rising inflation, reports UNB.

As the prices of all kinds of products including essentials are on the rise in the market people have been using their credit card loans.

According to the latest data of Bangladesh Bank (BB), credit card transactions have increased by about 29 per cent in a span of one year.

Credit card transactions in June 2021 were Tk 19.35 billion and in June 2022, the amount of transactions increased to Tk 24.91 billion.

Credit card transactions have increased by 29 per cent or Tk 5.56 billion in a year, it said.

At the same time, the number of credit cards in the country has increased by 10,51,549 last year.

In June 2022, the number of credit cards in the country increased to 37,52.891 against 27,01342 in June 2021.

Besides, people borrowed Tk 1.20 billion more from credit cards in June compared to May this year.

The BB data review found that the third highest credit card transaction in the last three years was in June, 2022. The highest transaction through credit cards was Tk 27.15 billion in April, 2022 and the second highest transaction was Tk 25.13 billion in March. Since November last year, credit card transactions have exceeded Tk 20.00 billion as the use of credit cards has increased among the middle and fixed income group of people.