The emergency disaster relief funds for citizens provided by the government to combat the impact of COVID-19 pandemic were mainly used for dining out and shopping while sales for opticians, hospitals and pharmacies grew the most last month, data showed.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety data, which analyzed the use of credit and debit cards for availing the emergency funds from May 11-31 by eight companies, including KB Kookmin, NongHyup, Lotte, BC, Samsung, Shinhan, Hana and Hyundai.
As of May 31, the total amount of relief funds used by citizens with credit and debit cards was 5.6 trillion won ($4.7 billion).
By Shin Ji-hye (
shinjh@heraldcorp.com)
