Card payments up by 50 percent in a year

A Focus Bari survey conducted for Mastercard found that card transactions soared by 50 percent in January, the first full month since the implementation of a law that only allows taxpayers who pay for their purchases with plastic to qualify for an income tax discount.

The use of credit, debit and prepaid cards in everyday transactions is expected to grow at a high rate within 2017, adding to the 136 percent increase in card transaction turnover recorded over the last two years. There has also been a considerable increase in the number of card terminals around Greece, now estimated at 320,000, which is seen climbing to 400,000 within the year.

More than four-fifths (81 percent) of active cards are debit cards, numbering 11.8 million. Of those, 1.3 million were issued in the last 12 months.

According to Mastercard's regional director Aspa Palimeri, an additional...