A week after the government began issuing the 'people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons,' sales for small business owners showed an approximate 2% increase compared to the previous week. By sector, sales for optical shops surged by 57%, while the fashion, clothing, and dining sectors each recorded increases in the 20% range.

A sign for the use of people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons is written in a neighborhood supermarket located in Mapo-gu, Seoul. /Courtesy of News1

According to Korea Credit Data (KCD) on the 4th, the average card sales for small business owners across the country increased by 2.2% compared to the previous week during the week in which the distribution of the people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons began (July 21-27).

The analysis of credit card sales data from 382,207 small business sites by KCD revealed that sales in the optical shop sector skyrocketed by 56.8% compared to the previous week, marking the highest growth rate.

Sales in the fashion and clothing industry also increased by 28.4%, while specialty restaurants (25.5%), language academies (24.2%), pizza places (23.7%), sushi and roll specialty shops (22.4%), beauty services (21.2%), and sports and leisure goods (19.9%) also saw significant sales increases.

Retail sales rose by 12%, but service industry sales declined by 3%. A KCD official noted, "The overlap of heat waves and the vacation period at the end of July seems to have hindered a rebound in service industry sales," adding, "However, service industry sales have increased by 5.1% compared to the same period last year."

Regionally, the largest sales increases were seen in Gyeongnam (9.4%), North Jeolla (7.5%), Gangwon (6.6%), South Chungcheong (5.8%), Ulsan (5.8%), and Daegu (5.7%), while Seoul (-4.0%) and Jeju (-0.8%) experienced sales declines.

Kang Ye-won, head of data at KCD, stated, "The people's livelihood recovery consumption coupons policy appears to have a positive effect on small business sales right after its implementation, and as distinct sales changes are seen in essential sectors like retail, dining, and beauty, we hope this policy leads to the recovery of more local economies."

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, as of 11 a.m. on the 31st, 11 days after the consumption coupons began being applied and issued on the 21st of last month, about 45.55 million people, or 90% of the population, had applied for them. The total amount of the distributed consumption coupons is 8.2371 trillion won.

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