Visa: Commercial spending in Asia Pacific up 13% to $18.9 trln last year

Annual commercial spending in Asia Pacific grew 13 percent from the previous year to 18.9 trillion U.S. dollars in 2007, according to data released Tuesday by Visa.

The Commercial Consumption Expenditure index also showed that global annual commercial spending grew 12.2 percent to an estimated 77.3 trillion U.S. dollars last year.

The Visa's 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 regions in the Asia Pacific were measured as part of the 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 with 5.2 trillion U.S. dollars, China with 4.9 trillion U.S. dollars, India with 2.3 trillion U.S dollars, South Korea with 2 trillion U.S. dollars and Australia with 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars.

The fastest growing Asia Pacific economies in size of total business and government spend were Myanmar, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and the Philippines, said Visa.

Source: Xinhua