South Koreans’ overseas card spending continued to grow in the third quarter as outbound travel spiked bolstered by eased pandemic curbs, central bank data showed.

The amount of money spent overseas by South Koreans with cards, including credit and debit cards, came to $3.81 billion in the July-September period, up 4.1 percent from the previous quarter, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.

Compared with a year earlier, consumption jumped 32.6 percent.

The latest data marked the second straight quarter of a rise, but a slower pace of growth from a 19.6 percent jump registered three months earlier.

Outbound travel has been on the rise as countries have eased their long-enforced coronavirus restrictions.

The number of outbound travelers came to nearly 2 million in the third quarter, a sharp increase from the previous quarter’s 944,000, the data showed. (Yonhap)