IMGCAP(1)]
Debit card spending is growing faster in India than credit card spending, according to statistics from the Reserve Bank of India. Indian consumers spent at least 125.2 billion rupees (US$2.6 billion or 1.9 billion euros) with debit cards during the 2007-2008 fiscal year, up 53.2% from 81.7 billion rupees the previous fiscal year, the central bank says. Credit card spending increased 40.1%, to 579.6 billion rupees from 413.6 billion rupees. However, the gap between credit and debit spending widened between the two years, to 454.4 billion rupees from 331.9 billion rupees. The spending increase for debit cards reflects not only the growing number of those cards in India but also the financial appeal of debit, Prathima Rajan, an India-based analyst for United States-based research firm Celent LLC, tells CardLine Global. "Customers prefer to spend their own money rather than [use] credit cards in order to avoid high interest rates and late-payment fees charged by the credit card companies," she says.
