South Korean households are tightening their purse strings even on private education expenses, long considered the last bastion of family budgets. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Mar. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – As stubbornly high inflation persists, South Korean households are tightening their purse strings even on private education expenses, long considered the last bastion of family budgets, according to data released on March 18.
BC Card, a major credit card company, reported a staggering 24 percent year-over-year plunge in education-related spending for February. While the company’s overall transaction volume declined by 4.2 percent compared to the same period last year, the drop in the education sector stood out as particularly stark.
Over the past four years, annual education spending had been rising steadily until early last year. However, from March of last year to this February, expenditures in this sector fell by 15 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, retreating to levels not seen since early 2020.
The recent 12-month period saw significant declines in spending across various educational domains, with a 31.5 percent decrease in physical education and arts academies, a 26.7 percent drop in private tutoring institutes, and a 26.5 percent reduction in foreign language academies.
Beyond education, BC Card observed substantial year-over-year declines in February across several major categories, including sports (down 17 percent), pet care (down 15.4 percent), restaurants (down 11.2 percent), and bars and nightclubs (down 10.7 percent).
The company’s analysis suggests that the prolonged high inflation has dampened household consumption sentiment, a trend likely to persist in the near term.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
