Credit card expenditure and credit balances in the country have dropped significantly. As of November last year, the balance of credit card debt of the licensed commercial banking sector had fallen to 114.13 billion rupees. This is the fourth month in 2020 that the balance has fallen. Credit card balances stood at 121.49 billion rupees at the beginning of 2020.
The number of active credit cards in Sri Lanka dropped to 1,887,474 at the end of November from 1,888,605 in October. As a result of isolation measures, the limited opportunities for credit card use seem to have led to an unprecedented level of personal savings.
Shopping was very low during the festive season at the end of the year, and people had to be careful about going out.
However, it is expected that some progress will be made on credit card spending from at least January 2021. This is because the economy is recovering and cardholders are benefiting from lower interest rates on cards since September last year.
