Locked-Down Koreans Lean in Alcohol and Tobacco
06 January, 2021
Sales of liquor and cigarettes rose to a fresh record last year as depressed Koreans were locked straight down at home.
The coronavirus epidemic resulted in extreme restrictions on leisure activities, and appears that lots of people drowned their sorrows in take and smoked to relieve the stress.
Liquor and cigarettes accounted for a record W4.3 trillion of home spending in the third quarter of last year, according to the Bank of Korea on Monday (US$1=W1,090). The prior record was W4.2 trillion set in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The average amount of cash each household spent monthly on liquor and cigarettes was an archive W42,980 -- W19,651 on alcohol and W23,329 on cigarettes.
But shelling out for social and different leisure activities fell to W12.4 trillion last year, a level last seen some eight years back.
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