Annual commercial spending in Asia Pacific grew to an estimated US$18.9 trillion in 2007, an increase of 13% from $16.8 trillion in 2006, according to data from the Commercial Consumption Expenditure (CCE) index released by Visa. Global annual commercial spending grew to an estimated $77.3 trillion in 2007, representing an increase of 12.2% from $68.9 trillion in 2006.
The CCE index is a financial metric that provides standardized tracking of business and government spending globally and is recognized as an industry benchmark for measuring commercial spending.
Twenty-one economies from countries and territories in the Asia Pacific were measured as part of the CCE index with 16 of those outpacing the average annual growth increase.
The top five Asia Pacific economies in size of total business and government spend were Japan (US$5.2 trillion), China (US$4.9 trillion), India (US$2.3 trillion), South Korea (US$2 trillion) and Australia (US$1.2 trillion).
Myanmar (41% to US$12,440 million), Hong Kong (36.5% to US$272,216 million), Singapore (35% to US$371,579 million), India (23% to US$2.3 trillion) and the Philippines (20.7% to US$189,885) were the fastest growing Asia Pacific economies in size of total business and government spend.
“The markets across Asia Pacific are varied in terms of their stages of development and usage of commercial card products,” says John Hazlewood, director, Visa Commercial Solutions, Asia Pacific. “Using the findings from the CCE index developed by Visa, we can better measure the penetration of commercial payment products and assist our client financial institutions in developing solutions tailored to meet the evolving payments needs of business and government.”