(Yicai Global) June 9 -- China’s non-cash payments fell a little in the first quarter due to the Covid-19 epidemic, while mobile payments maintained growth, according to new central bank data.

Banks handled 63.1 billion non-cash payment transactions worth CNY883.2 trillion (USD124.6 trillion) in the three months ended March 31, down 5.2 percent and 5.23 percent respectively from a year earlier, the People’s Bank of China said in a report on its website today.

Mobile payments accounted for 22.5 billion transactions, totaling CNY90.81 trillion, representing gains of almost 14.3 percent and 4.84 percent.

The nation’s payments system handled a total of 122.9 billion transactions worth CNY1.715 quadrillion (USD242.1 trillion), an amount that was 83 times larger than China’s gross domestic product in the same period.

At the end of the quarter, total bank card credit was CNY17.57 trillion, up 1.17 percent over the previous quarter, while credit card loans overdue for half a year stood at CNY91.9 billion, or 1.27 percent of the total credit balance.

Editor: Peter Thomas