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Credit card use by the nation’s consumers has been little affected by the global financial crisis, with outstanding loans and transaction values showing continued growth, according to the latest data from the Indonesian Credit Card Association.

From April to May, total loans outstanding on credit cards stood at Rp 31.7 trillion ($3.2 billion), up Rp 1.1 trillion from the March-to-April period. The figure was Rp 25.6 trillion from April to May 2008.

On a month-on-month basis, the total value of credit card transactions also increased slightly, to Rp 10.8 trillion at the end of May from Rp 10.5 trillion in April. The figure was 24 percent higher than in the same period last year.

“That achievement is definitely better than we expected,” Dodit Probojakti, the chairman of the AKKI, said on Wednesday. He said that cardholders were mainly still using credit for shopping and routine expenses.

“However, full-year growth in 2009 is likely to be lower than in 2008,” Dodit added, “because people are decreasing spending due to the global crisis, and credit card issuers are expanding less and being more cautious.”

From January to May of this year, the number of card cards in use nationwide leveled out at about 11,000. In 2008, however, the number of cards increased from 9,180 to 11,548, while transaction values grew 48 percent.