Business - Commercial spending in India up 23% to $2.3 trillion

MUMBAI: Annual commercial spending in India grew to an estimated $2.3 trillion in 2007, an increase of 23 per cent from 2006, according to data from the Commercial Consumption Expenditure (CCE) index released by Visa.
The index also revealed that India is one of the fastest growing Asia Pacific economies in terms of size of total business and government spend.

Commercial spending in Asia Pacific grew to an estimated $18.9 trillion in 2007, an increase of 13 per cent from $16.8 trillion in 2006. Global annual commercial spending grew to an estimated $77.3 trillion in 2007, representing an increase of 12.2 per cent 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.
India ranked third in the top five Asia Pacific economies in terms of size of total business and government spend. The other top four economies in this category include Japan ($5.2 trillion), China ($4.9 trillion), South Korea ($2 trillion) and Australia ($1.2 trillion).
India is the fourth fastest growing economy in size of total business and government spend. Myanmar (41 per cent to $12,440 million), Hong Kong (36.5 per cent to $272,216 million), Singapore (35 per cent to $371,579 million) are the top three, followed by India (23 per cent to $2.3 trillion) and the Philippines (20.7 per cent to $189,885).

Visa Commercial Solutions, Asia Pacific director John Hazlewood says, "The markets across Asia Pacific are varied in terms of their stages of development and usage of commercial card products. 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".

According to index estimates, spending in all global geographic areas rose during the year. Europe represented the largest share of commercial spending, followed by the United States. Asia Pacific ranked third among global geographic areas in terms of global share of commercial spending.