India ranks 3rd in Asia Pacific region's CCE spend

Mumbai, Mar 6: Visa Asia Pacific today released its global Commercial Consumption Expenditure (CCE) forecast for 2006 which ranks India as third in CCE spending in the Asia Pacific region, the first two being Japan and China.

The Visa forecast pointed out that Japan continued to report the biggest CCE spending of USD 5.4 trillion followed by China at USD 3.6 trillion and India at USD 1.9 trillion. China represented the highest rate of year-on-year growth at 16 per cent, with India reporting 13 per cent.

It projected that the region's business and Government spending will exceed USD 16.1 trillion this calendar year as against USD 15 trillion in CY2005.

The CCE index provides the global payment industry, including Visa and its 21,000-member banks, an unbiased and consistent method of monitoring and tracking global business and Government expenditure.

The first and only standardized metric of its kind, the global CCE index includes all commercial and Government purchases of goods and services with the exception of payroll.

Asia Pacific is the third-largest spending region among the CCE index's six regions, behind the US' projected total of USD 17.4 trillion, and Europe's predicted 2006 commercial spending level of USD 22.1 trillion.

Mr Michael Cannon, General Manager, Commercial Solutions, Visa Asia Pacific said, ''These figures further underpin the phenomenal speed at which the Asia Pacific economy is growing. In just a year, Asia Pacific has moved from the fifth-ranked region in terms of percentage expenditure growth worldwide to the second highest, mainly fuelled by growth in China. We expect this percentage growth rate to continue, bringing the region's total CCE closer to that of Europe.'' Utilizing methodology developed by Visa and launched in 2004, CCE draws upon government data in methods similar to the personal consumption expenditure index, which monitors consumer-related spending.

Global CCE is estimated using four key data elements: the amount of business-to-business purchases of goods and services used in production; wholesale and retail purchases of final goods; some business capital expenditures and Government spending on goods and services.

Adjustments were made for capitalized expenditures, such as construction and durable defence spending. The calculations measure transactions at basic prices, which include taxes (less subsidies) on production.

UNI