After hitting every sector of the economy and life hard, record inflation in May also affected credit card, POS and e-commerce transactions as well around the country.
Compared to April this year, in May, credit card transactions fell by 5.6 per cent and point of sale (POS) transactions by 16.7 per cent while e-commerce transactions increased only by 1 per cent, according to the latest report of Bangladesh Bank (BB).
The report showed that the amount transacted through credit cards in May stood at Tk 2,592 crore. It was Tk 2,746 crore in April.
In cohesion, the number of transactions using credit cards also dropped significantly. In April, the number of transactions was 42.77 lakh and it decreased by 5.16 per cent to 40.56 lakh in May.
Industry people said that credit card transactions usually decline in the months before Eid. However, the overall fall was undoubtedly caused by the rising inflation, which has cut down many customers’ spending.
Bangladesh is facing high inflation due to the US dollar crisis and commodity price hikes in the international market. Point-to-point inflation was at 9.24 per cent in April and it went up to 9.94 per cent in May, which was the highest in the last decade.
This is reflected in the decreased POS transactions as well. According to BB data, POS transactions were Tk 3,077 crore in April, but the volume declined to Tk 2,576 crore in May.
AYM Mostafa, chief technology officer of Prime Bank, told The Business Post that credit cards and POS are directly linked to purchases. Of these, POS is 100 per cent purchase-centric.
“Such transactions have fallen by Tk 500 crore. This must be an impact of inflation as it has cut down people’s regular purchases,” he added.
Meanwhile, e-commerce and internet banking transactions increased slightly in May compared to April, showed BB data.
E-commerce transactions were Tk 1,257 crore in April. It increased by only 1 per cent to Tk 1,270 crore in May.
The amount transacted through internet banking was Tk 4.46 lakh crore in April and it increased by 11.98 per cent to Tk 4.99 lakh crore.
Mostafa said that internet banking has seen growth as most funds and payments are transferred and made, respectively, through this system.
