South Korean households' overseas spending rose 16.8 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier on increased outbound travel to foreign countries, the central bank said Tuesday.

South Korean households spent 8.21 trillion won ($7 billion) overseas in the July-September period, compared with 7.03 trillion won in the same period last year, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.

It marked the first time that households' overseas quarterly spending has surpassed 8 trillion won.

The figure accounts for 4.3 percent of households' total spending in the third quarter.

The third quarter data does not include local households' purchases through "direct buying" channels, such as Amazon.com, or their expenditures during overseas business trips, the BOK data said.

In 2015, households' overseas spending hit a record high of 26.27 trillion won, and it is on the rise this year due to increased outbound trips by South Koreans.

The number of outbound travelers came to 6.05 million in the July-September period, compared with 5.02 million from the same period last year, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.

Meanwhile, foreigners spent 3.9 trillion won in South Korea in the July-September period, up 23.7 percent from the same period last year, the BOK said. (Yonhap)