At the end of September, there were 8.7 million debit and credit cards in Croatia, a rise of 1.6% compared to September 2013.
This rate was lower compared to rates in the past, notably to years before the outbreak of the crisis in 2008, an HGK analyst said.
The share of smart cards is 92.4%.
Cards are mainly used to withdraw cash, 60.2% of the total value of card transactions, 35.2% refer to payments in Croatia, and 4.6% to transactions made abroad.
Croatia had a total of 4,261 cash machines at the end of September, a 3.5% rise year on year. The number of EFTPOS terminals went up 6% to 5,703.
It has been noticed that cards are being increasingly used for payments of small amounts at EFTPOS terminals. The average value per transaction at EFTPOS terminals was HRK 246 in the first nine months of 2014, down by 8 kuna compared to the corresponding period in 2013.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.6)