Consumers use cards most at supermarkets, shopping malls

ISTANBUL

Turkish consumers used their cards mostly for shopping at markets and malls in October, shows data from the Central Bank.

Payments made at markets and shopping malls with bank and credit cards amounted to 227.6 billion Turkish Liras ($6.6 billion) last month.

Food spending with cards was 89.4 billion liras, followed by clothing at 89.3 billion liras and payments made in the services sector at 84 billion liras.

Consumer spending with cards on food and gasoline were 76.8 billion liras and 74.6 billion liras, respectively. They spent another 65.3 billion liras on electronic goods.

Transactions for jewelry and airlines stood at 25.4 billion liras and 23.4 billion liras, respectively.

Total payments with debit and credit cards totaled 1.25 trillion liras last month, according to Central Bank data.

In this period, debit and credit accounted for 346.4 billion liras of the purchases made over the internet. The share of online shopping in total payments was 28 percent.

Expenditures made with debit and credit cards in October decreased by around 20 percent since August.

While 1.57 trillion liras were spent in the said month, this figure was 1.28 trillion liras for September.

From August to October, the highest decline was in education, stationery and office supplies with 52 percent, followed by accommodation with a 50 percent decrease. The third sector with the highest decrease in expenditures with debit and credit cards was the travel agencies category with 39 percent.