China Sees 1.48T Yuan in Online Payments on Singles Day, Equal to 1.65% of 2018 GDP: PBOC Data

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The Chinese central bank has just released its first set of data on internet consumer payments made during the 11 November Singles’ Day shopping event.

Data released by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) via its official WeChat account on 12 November indicates that the NetsUnion Clearing Corporation and China UnionPay jointly processed 1.779 billion online payment transactions on 11 November with a total value of 1.48207 trillion yuan, for YoY increases of 35.49% and 162.60% respectively.

The 1.48 trillion yuan in online spending on 11 November is equal to 1.65% of China’s 2018 GDP reading of 90.03 trillion yuan, and translates into per capita spending of around 1000 yuan.

“NetsUnion Clearing Corporation and UnionPay joined together to successfully finish work for maintaining online payments and settlement operations by banking institutions and non-bank payments entities and the secure operation of the payments and settlements system during the 11 November peak,” said PBOC.

NetsUnion said that it processed 1.54 billion cross-institutional payments transactions worth a total of 1.16 trillion yuan, or increases of 32.2% and 147.25% respectively.