Cyprus local credit card use jumps in October

Local credit card spending with cards issued in Cyprus rose over the year earlier by 15% in October to EUR 186 mln, compared with an increased of 16% in September.
JCC said that the increase was mainly owing to the use of JCC Smart, the online payment system.
For the period January-October, local credit card spending rose by 11% to EUR 1.77 bln, whereas total retail sales value rose by only 2.3% in the same period.
Spending abroad, which includes internet purchases, rose in October by 5% over the year earlier to EUR 113 mln, compared with a rise of 9% in September.
In the first ten months of the year spending abroad rose by 10% to EUR 1.06 bln.
Expenditure by tourists in Cyprus rose by 9% in October to EUR 51.4 mln and by 10% in the first ten months of the year to EUR 421.0 mln.
For the year to date, the highest proportion of transactions has been at supermarkets (20.0%), followed by unspecified retailers (11.2%), clothing (11.1%) and government (10.0%).

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