Credit Card Expenditures in India Surpass Rs 2 Lakh Crore in October
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New Delhi, Nov 28 (NationPress) As the festive season has spurred strong growth in India across various sectors, credit card expenditures soared past Rs 2 lakh crore in October, marking a 14.5% increase from September.
According to the most recent data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), credit card spending for October reached Rs 2.02 lakh crore, representing a 13% year-on-year rise.
Data from the Central Bank shows that the number of outstanding credit cards in circulation rose by 12.85% to 106.88 million, an increase of 0.74% from September.
Leading the issuance of credit cards, HDFC Bank issued 241,119 cards, followed by SBI Cards with 220,265 cards and ICICI Bank with 138,541 cards.
In contrast, as UPI-based digital payments continue to rise, debit card transactions fell by nearly 8%, dropping from approximately Rs 43,350 crore in August to about Rs 39,920 crore in September, according to the RBI’s monthly report.
Conversely, credit card transactions increased in the country, showing nearly a 5% growth in September, reaching Rs 1.76 lakh crore, up from Rs 1.68 lakh crore in August.
Market analysts indicate that the surge in credit card spending can be attributed to a lower base from the previous year and the festival season, which has seen a rise in promotional offerings such as equated monthly installments.
The proportion of digital payments more than doubled, rising from 14-19% in March 2021 to 40-48% in March 2024, significantly aided by the unified payments interface (UPI).
The growth rate of UPI transactions has been remarkable, achieving a 75% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), while UPI expenditures surged by 68% CAGR from August 2019 to August 2024, even as credit card sector growth has remained sluggish.
The massive popularity of UPI is highlighted by the transaction volume ratio, which stands at 38.4 times that of credit card transactions, as per a recent report by Axis Securities.
However, due to the smaller ticket size of UPI transactions, the UPI-to-credit card spending ratio was 0.3 times in August, remaining largely stable at current levels.
