Annual retail event 'Korea Sales Festa' boosts domestic spending

코세페 기간 카드 승인액 6.3%↑ 자동차 32%↑…"내수에 기여"In the first half of this month, South Korean companies got a nice boost in revenues from a nationwide retail event called the Korea Sale Festa where shoppers got discounts on everything from new cars to electronics and cosmetics.Bae Eun-ji reports.South Korea's largest sales event "Korea Sale Festa"... has given local firms a welcome boost this November.The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Friday that during the 15-day event, credit card spending amounted to 33-point-5 billion U.S. dollars, up 6-point-3 percent on-year."Retailers, including off-line stores, saw an increase in sales through the sale festival... even though the economy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic."The festival included more than 1,700 major retailers, manufacturers, and traditional markets across the country this year twice as many as last year.Sales of tires rose by 75-point-5 percent, and electronic appliances were up by 49-point-5 percent.And auto sales also saw a huge increase."Special promotions by the five automakers that took part in the festival boosted spending... raising car sales in the nation by more than 30-percent."During the sales event, an average of more than 7-thousand cars were sold each day.And around a thousand of those were eco-friendly cars... a 155 percent increase on the same period last year."With the 'Korea Sale Festa' and the release of our new model in November, we had more than 2-thousand cars being sold in a week. I have been getting a lot of calls from consumers about the event, and those who visit our dealership have been asking about it as well."As well as domestic sales, more than 2-thousand one-on-one business meetings were arranged online to help local companies find buyers overseas.Bae Eun-ji, Arirang News.