UnionPay transactions increase 4.8%

Chinese bankcard company China UnionPay said its total transaction value rose by 4.8 percent on a yearly basis to 1.38 trillion yuan ($213.4 billion) during the Spring Festival holiday period. Spending by people who stay put at their places of work accounted for the bulk of the purchases, 13.6 percentage points higher than the spending in the same period a year ago, the company said. Chongqing municipality, Jiangxi province and Qinghai province saw the fastest growth in consumption expenditure on a yearly basis of more than 15 percent each.