Press release for the movements in payments in the third quarter of 2020
Skopje, 9 December 2020
In order to perceive the movements in payments, in conditions when the payment habits change due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Bank processed the payment statistics data for the third quarter this year and published them before the usual deadline set in the Advance Release Calendar.
Card payments in trade in the country during the third quarter of 2020 registered a significant annual growth in both, the number and the value of executed transactions of 41% and 42%, respectively. Thereby, high annual increase in the number of citizens’ card payments via online points of sale is evident, which in the third quarter of this year was 175% and is almost five times higher than the annual growth in the same quarter last year (37.7%). Regarding the use of payment cards at physical points of sale, in the third quarter this year, annual growth of 36.8% was realized, which is significantly higher than the annual growth in the same quarter last year (22.3%).
On the other hand, the negative impact of the pandemic became pronounced in the payments on the basis of credit transfer instrument, which registered an annual decrease of 4.4% regarding the number and 4.9% regarding the value of the transactions.
However, since the COVID-19 crisis outbreak, the natural persons have increasingly been reaping the benefits of e-banking. The number of e-credit transfers initiated by citizens in the third quarter increased by significant 35.4% on an annual basis, which is almost three times more compared to the annual growth in the same quarter in 2019 (12.8%). To make payments, the citizens were especially keen on using mobile applications, which indicates a further change in payment habits in favor of using digital payment channels. The number of payments made by mobile phone has grown impressively by significant 84.2% on an annual basis. The registered growth in such payments is also much higher than the annual growth realized in the third quarter last year, which equaled 49.3%. Also, in the third quarter of this year, the upward trend of domestic payments by citizens via computer continues. More specifically, in the third quarter of this year these payments registered high annual growth of 20.1%, which is four times higher than the annual growth in the third quarter in the previous year, when it equaled 4.7%. On the other hand, the conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the rapid change of the citizens’ habits in terms of initiating paper-based credit transfers, with the number of credit transfers initiated in this way recording a high annual fall of 34.4% in the third quarter of 2020, as opposed to the annual growth in the same quarter last year, of 8.5%.
The change in the citizens’ habits in conditions of restricted movements due to the pandemic, contributed to an impressive annual growth of their card-based e-payments in the country of 141%, as well as of the e-credit transfers of 28%, during all three quarters of 2020.
Payment statistics - payment movements in the third quarter of 2020