Increased use of electronic payments, including credit, debit and prepaid cards, added US$1.87 billion to the nation’s GDP and created 9,980 jobs per year between 2011 and last year, according to a study released yesterday by Visa Inc.
The study was conducted by Moody’s Analytics on behalf of Visa and analyzed the impact of electronic payments on economic growth in 70 countries during the five-year period.
The study found that migration to electronic payment systems has added nearly US$296 billion to GDP across the 70 economies during the period, while raising household consumption of goods and services by an average of 0.18 percent per year.
In addition, Moody’s economists estimate that the equivalent to 2.6 million new jobs was created on average annually over the five-year period as a result of increased use of electronic payments. The 70 countries included in the study make up almost 95 percent of global GDP.
Three Asian economies enjoyed the biggest lifts in GDP because of increased card usage. Thailand saw its GDP rise by 0.19 percent, Vietnam reported a 0.14 percent boost and Singapore saw an increase of 0.1 percent, the study found.
The three economies were followed by Taiwan, which saw a 0.09 percent lift in GDP, and tied with Hong Kong for fourth place on GDP growth in the Asia-Pacific region due to increased use of electronic payments.
Overall, increased use of electronic payments boosted GDP growth in the region by 0.06 percent on average, the study said.
In particular, the two countries with the greatest average job increases as a result were China (427,000 jobs) and India (336,000 jobs).
Migration to electronic payments created 43,600 jobs on average per year in emerging countries, higher than the additional 14,800 jobs in developed countries.
There is ample room for electronic payment to pick up in Taiwan as most people hold on to cash as payment too, the US payment service provider has said.
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