Credit Card Spends Fall For First Time Since July: RBI Data The number of transactions per card also declined, in line with the reduction in expenditure per card - at 2.9 transactions versus 3.2 in October

According to a data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reported by ET, the credit card spends fell more than 12% sequentially, with average spends coming around INR 14,280 for the month of November, in comparison with INR 16,343 in October. The report also added that, at an aggregate level, credit card spends continued to breach the INR 1 lakh crore mark for the ninth consecutive month.

Bunty Chawla, analyst of IDBI Capital, in the news report was quoted as saying, "Going forward, we expect card expenditure to moderate further over the next couple of months due to the end of festive season and inflationary impact on consumer spending."

The bank-wise data revealed that, HDFC Bank saw a 13 per cent decline in its credit card spends from October, whereas SBI card saw a decline of nearly 10 per cent, ICICI Bank of 15 per cent and Axis Bank a 8 per cent drop.

The credit card industry has largely bounced back from the decline in number of cards seen in August and September, after the RBI mandated banks to deactivate credit cards, unused for over one year, with effect from July. In terms of the number of cards, issuers added a total of 13 lakh cards during the month, lower than the 17 lakh cards added in October. This took the aggregate count to 8.1 crore credit cards as at the end of November, the data showed. Furthermore, the number of transactions per card also declined, in line with the reduction in expenditure per card - at 2.9 transactions versus 3.2 in October.