Surging Credit Card Spending Raises Concerns About Australia’s Economy

Rising living cost pressures have forced many Australian households to dig deep into their credit cards in the past year, sparking concerns about defaults and other negative economic impacts.
According to recent data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the total value of credit card transactions reached around $33.5 billion (US$22.38 billion) in January 2023, up 17 percent from a year earlier.
Compared to May 2022, when the RBA first raised the official cash rate, the total value of transactions had increased by 6.3 percent.
The number of credit card transactions also climbed by 11 percent between January 2022 and January 2023.
Data from the financial comparison website Finder showed that there were 13,247,246 credit cars in Australia as of January 2023….