Chinese bank card business up 70% in value over New Year period

Chinese consumers spent 59 billion yuan (8.63 billion U.S. dollars) in 89.17 million bank-card-based interbank transactions from Jan. 1 to Jan. 3, China UnionPay said on Sunday.
The number of transactions was up 55.8 percent year-on-year, while the value was up 70.5 percent, the bank card alliance added.

Credit-card-based consumption was 16.5 billion yuan, up 89 percent.

Bank-card-based business accounts for 25 percent of retail sales, it said.

As of Dec. 31, retail outlets hooked up to Union Pay's bank-card network numbered more than 1.1 million nationwide, with some 1.7 million point of sale terminals and 160,000 automatic teller machines.