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The Power of Electronic Payments Stimulates Economic Growth in Canada

visa canada [1]The growth in the use of electronic payment products, such as credit and debit cards, added US$9.7 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Canada over the past four years, according to a study [2] conducted for Visa [1] by Moody’s Analytics, a leading independent provider of economic forecasting. The study of 56 countries, including Canada, that represent 93 per cent of global GDP, concluded that: “card usage makes the economy more efficient, yielding a meaningful boost to economic growth.”

Globally, electronic payments contributed $983 billion to the GDP of the 56 countries examined between 2008 and 2012. Over the same time period, GDP in those countries grew by an average of 1.8 percentage points.

“With growing card usage contributing $9.7 billion to Canada’s GDP, there’s no denying the benefits of electronic payments here, or the importance of maintaining an open marketplace to encourage competition and innovation within the industry. We can see from the data that the positive impact in economic growth is a direct result of card usage and is tied to the benefits electronic payments offer, including enhanced security, convenience of operating without cash or cheques, increased efficiency at checkout and a reduction in the grey economy,” said Jim Allhusen, Visa country manager for Canada.

Allhusen continued, “We are excited about the prospects of increasing electronic payments in Canada through new, innovative solutions, and we look forward to working with local businesses, governments and industry stakeholders to continue to expand and support economic growth.”

“Despite a challenging global economic landscape, the increasing penetration of payment cards helped increase consumer consumption and on average, added to GDP,” noted Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics. “The increase in consumption parallels the growing popularity and accessibility of electronic payments among global consumers. At the same time these findings point to the need for governments to adopt policies that encourage the shift to efficient and secure electronic forms of payments.”

Highlights of the study include:

This survey is the second iteration, following a study conducted by Moody’s Analytics from 2003 to 2008.

 

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1 Comment To "The Power of Electronic Payments Stimulates Economic Growth in Canada"

#1 Comment By Tami Quiring (@VillageGamer) On Thursday February 7, 2013 @ 3:07 am

The Power of Electronic Payments Stimulates Economic Growth in Canada [7]