South Korea's credit card spending soared nearly 14 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier when the nation's economy was hit by the spread of the MERS viral respiratory disease, statistics showed Tuesday.

Credit card purchases totaled 178.4 trillion won ($156 billion) during the April-June period, a 13.8 percent on-year rise, according to the data from the Credit Finance Association.


The upswing is largely due to a base effect. South Koreans slashed their consumption in the second quarter of last year amid the MERS woes.

In particular, credit card spending on the tourism industry rebounded markedly.

Purchases made with credit cards for hotels, condos and other lodging facilities rose 11.1 percent to 455.4 billion won. Those for trains, express buses and ferries also jumped 38.8 percent to 365.6 billion won.

Spending on leisure activities, including theme parks, spiked 83.4 percent to 43.3 billion won.

By type, individual credit card spending grew 10.5 percent to 134.9 trillion won and corporate credit card use came to 43.5 trillion won, up 25.3 percent. (Yonhap)