Credit card billings hit $66.7T in 2006

Credit cards globally grew by eight percent, or from $61.7 trillion in 2005 to $66.7 trillion last year.

In the Asia Pacific region, commercial consumption expenditure (CCE) grew by seven percent to $17 trillion in 2006, from the $15.9 trillion. In fact, the Philippines registered an 18 percent growth rate to $151.6 billion, said to be among the top five fastest growth rates in the region.

The CCE index is a standardized metric system to track business and government spending globally. It provides the global payment industry, including Visa and its member financial institutions, an unbiased and consistent way to monitor global business expenditures. The Visa CCE index, meanwhile, includes all commercial spending with the exception of payroll and other select expenditures.

"The Asia-Pacific region’s growth is understandable given the strength of the economies in our part of the world, China, India and South Korea experienced double digit growth in 2006, which helped the region grow slightly faster than either Europe or the United States," Michael Cannon, Visa INternational senior vice president for Commercial Solutions in Asia-Pacific, said in a statement.

The top five Asia Pacific markets in size of total spend were Japan ($5.3 trillion), China ($4.2 trillion), India ($1.9 trillion), South Korea ($1.9 trillion) and Australia ($1.1 trillion).

Also included were Indonesia with 25 percent growth rate, Sri Lanka with 17 percent, while Vietnam and Thailand achieved 16 percent.

Canada registered a 17.6 percent growth rate last year, from $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion.

Europe has the distinction of having the biggest CCE index overall. In 2005, its spending hit $22.5 trillion or six percent better than the $21.2 trillion in 2005. The US expectedly was second biggest with $17.3 trillion or 6,7 percent higher than the $16.2 trillion registered in 2005.

The group of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted to $4.5 trillion last year from the $3.9 trillion in 2005. The Latin America and Caribbean region accounted for $3.4 trillion last year.

Global CCE is estimated using four key data elements: the amount of business-to-business purchases to acquire 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 defense spending.

The types of transactions included in CCE can be captured on a variety of Visa products including Visa Corporate, Visa Purchasing, Visa Business, and Visa Distribution.

"Since its inception by Visa Commercial more than three years ago, the global CCE index has become the de facto metric for tracking business and government spending and the continued transition to electronic payment systems, including the full suite of Visa Commercial products and services," said Aliza Knox, senior vice president, Visa Commercial, Visa International. "Updated every year, the global CCE index identifies new growth opportunities for our stakeholders by measuring the traction of various payment types with corporate and government entities." — Ted Torres