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The number of credit cards in use reached 72mn as of end-June, rising 6% from a year ago, while the number of debit cards was up 9% to 245mn.
Consumer electronic goods purchases with credit and debit cards jumped 43% on an annual basis in the first six months of the year, while supermarket and food spending with cards grew 33% y/y.
Online purchases with cards increased by 24% on an annual basis to TRY107bn in H1, making up some 21% of all payments with cards, the BKM data also showed.
The volume of contactless payments tripled during January-July. Higher card transaction volumes could also be a sign of inflation.
As of June 26, the credit card debt stock of consumers rose to TRY113bn from TRY103bn as of May 15, according to data from banking watchdog BDDK.
The volume of consumer loans extended by Turkish banks also moved up to stand at TRY578bn in the week ending June 26 from TRY465bn at end-2019.
Housing loans jumped to TRY231bn as of June 26 from TRY223bn a week ago (TRY212bn as of June 5) while car loans inched up to TRY8.3bn from TRY8bn.
In June, vehicle, home and white goods sales in Turkey jumped, as expected thanks to the latest cheap consumer credit campaigns that were launched at the beginning of June.
BDDK also reported that the total Turkish lira loan volume climbed to TRY2.1 trillion as of June 26 from TRY1.68 trillion at end-2019.
Commercial loans, on the other hand, rose to TRY1.41 trillion from TRY1.08bn at end-2019.
Weighted average interest rate on consumer loans fell to 12.87% as of June 26 from 8.27% as of April 24 while mortgage loan rates fell to 9.01% and commercial loan rates fell to 9.8%.
Official CPI inflation slightly rose to 12.6% in June from 11.4% in May.
“The pandemic has done strange things to household finances. On the one hand, it has had a devastating impact on some parts of the labour market,” Neil Shearing of Capital Economics wrote on June 22 in a blog note entitled “A tale of two lockdowns”.
23 TURKEY Country Report August 2020 www.intellinews.com
