July 3 (SeeNews) - The number of bank payment cards in Croatia fell 3.78% to some 8.56 million last year, while the number of card transactions and their value rose, central bank figures showed.
The number of bank card transactions rose 7.7% to 467.75 million last year, whereas their total value increased 7.3% to 160.3 billion kuna ($24.4 billion/21.8 billion euro), the central bank said in a report on Tuesday.
In 2018, the number of debit cards issued to Croatian citizens fell 4.38% to some 6.7 million, while the number of credit cards decreased 1.54% to 1.85 million.
A total of 3.35 million people of Croatia's population of 4.12 million owned at least one bank card as at the end of last year.
The average monthly number of card transactions per card stood at 9.2 in 2018, with average monthly spending of 3,234 kuna.
Almost 1.52 million new payment cards were issued last year, of which 82% were debit cards and 18% credit cards.
The percentage of contactless payment cards in the total rose to 26.8% at the end of 2018 from 23.8% a year earlier. Some 95% of all contactless cards were debit cards.
A total of 25 credit institutions and two institutions for electronic money issued payment cards in Croatia in 2018.
(1 euro = 7.39681 kuna)