Credit card spending up 16.3 pct in April

SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's credit card spending expanded 16.3 percent in April from a year earlier due mainly to a rise in consumer prices and increased consumer spending, a trade association said Tuesday. Purchases made by credit cards totaled 36.3 trillion won (US$33 billion) in April, compared with 31.2 trillion won during the same month a year earlier, according to the Credit Finance Association (CFA). Compared with the previous month, however, credit card spending slipped 3.3 percent due to the fewer number of days, the CFA said. The data includes spending by credit cards as well as debit and prepaid cards. Cash advances and overseas spending were not included. "The on-year growth came on rising consumer prices," said an official at the CFA. "Increased purchases at online shopping malls and department stores also drove up the April figure." South Korea's consumer prices rose 4.2 percent in April from a year earlier, surpassing the upper ceiling of the central bank's 2-4 percent inflation target band for the fourth straight month.