The government says the 2016 Korea Sale FESTA boosted the nation’s gross domestic product(GDP) by zero-point-13 percentage points in the fourth quarter.

The value of purchases paid with credit cards at retailers such as department stores, supermarkets, duty free stores and online shops, grew eleven-point-one percent year-on-year during the tourism and shopping festival which ran from September 29th to October 31st.

The combined sales of major distributors participating in the event were estimated at eight-point-seven trillion won, or over seven-point-six billion U.S. dollars, up 12-point-five percent from last year when the Korea Black Friday discount event was held in October. It is also a jump of more than 30 percent compared to the same period of 2014.

Duty free shops posted the highest sales growth rate of 36-point-six percent. With the number of foreign tourists up by seven-point-three percent year-on-year to one-point-seven million, the nation earned a total of two-point-two trillion won from tourism.