By Jean Christou
CYPRIOTS spent £3.3 million a day or a total of almost £1.2 billion on credits cards both on the island and abroad in 2007, JCC statistics released yesterday showed.
The figures represent an increase of 16 per cent on domestic purchases and 32 per cent on buying abroad compared to 2006.
Of the total £1.2 billion spent on credit cards £893,972,727 was spent on the island plus another £297,125,314, which was spent abroad.
Nearly 21 million transactions took place at home – 55,000 a day on average – and over three million took place abroad.
The average purchase locally was £43, up from £41 in 2006, while those who used their cards abroad showed an average transaction of £92, the same as 2006.
In December spending on the island increased ten per cent over 2006 to reach £104,659,756 with over 2.2 million transactions during the month. This represents an increase of 3.0 per cent over December 2006.
More than £26 million was spent abroad in December 2007, a 32 per cent increase over the previous year. The figures show that Cypriots used their credit cards abroad over 305,000 times in the same month, a 35 per cent hike year-on-year.
By contrast, tourist spending on credit cards was far more moderate both for 2007 as a whole, and in December on the island.
Spending by tourists on their credit cards increased only six per cent in 2007 to reach more than £271 million, which represented 3.1 million transactions.
Visitors did spend more in December 2007 than December 2006 however. With an 11 per cent increase, credit card spending reached £13.4 million or 193,115 transactions.
The average purchase by tourists per transaction amounted to £87 in 2007 compared to £86 in 2006.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007
Bubbles x
