Electronic payments ‘add $296b to global GDP’

Use of electronic payments boosted GDP across 70 countries by $296 billion between 2011 and 2015, creating an average of 2.6 million new jobs each year, according to research from Visa and Moody’s Analytics. The study, The Impact of Electronic Payments on Economic Growth, calculates the impact of card usage on per capita consumption, then extrapolates the effect of increased use of electronic payment products, including credit, debit and prepaid cards, on GDP. It suggests that increased use of electronic payments between 2011 and 2015 boosted household consumption of goods and services by an average of 0.18 per cent per year, contributing about $74 billion to annual global GDP. The 70 countries covered by the study account for almost 95 per cent of global GDP.