Credit card spending drops to 22.94 bln dinars in H1 2025
POS payments rise despite overall spending slowdown; external card use climbs 7.2% while domestic transactions shrink
The Central Bank of Kuwait data shows total credit card spending by citizens and residents dropped by 4.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, reaching 22.943 billion dinars, compared to 23.978 billion dinars during the same period in 2024 — a decline of 1.03 billion dinars.
The figures showed a significant decline in ATM cash withdrawals, down 10.3% (533.1 million dinars) to 4.618 billion dinars, while online (website) transactions fell 8.4% (806.4 million dinars) to 8.813 billion dinars.
However, the point-of-sale (POS) transactions bucked the trend, increasing 3.3% (305.2 million dinars) to 9.511 billion dinars.
From a geographical point of view, external (overseas) spending increased 7.23%, or 100 million dinars, totaling 1.482 billion dinars. In contrast, domestic spending declined by 5% (1.13 billion dinars) to 21.46 billion dinars, accounting for 93.5% of all card-based spending.
In terms of transaction activity:
- POS device usage soared 17.9%, reaching 471.6 million transactions
- ATM transactions declined 10.2% to 34.8 million
- Online transactions fell 5.3% to 163.7 million
As for infrastructure, the number of POS terminals increased by 5.3% to 106,501, while the number of ATMs dropped by 2.5% to 2,352 machines.
