The booming Asian middle class will sustain growth in the region and may replace U.S. and Europe as primary global consumers, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Thursday.
The report, entitled "The Rise of Asia's Middle Class", noted that the rapid growth in some of the region's economies, including China, India, Malaysia and Thailand raised per capita incomes, reduced poverty levels and created a rapidly growing middle class consumers.
"Developing Asia's middle class is rapidly increasing its size and purchasing power, and will be an increasingly important force in global economic rebalancing," ADB Chief Economist Jong-Wha Lee said in a statement.
In 2008, Asia's consumers spent an estimated 4.3 trillion U.S. dollars, or about one-third of the developed countries' consumption expenditure. The Manila-based lender said that by 2030, Asian consumers will likely spend 32 trillion U.S. dollars, comprising about 43 percent of the worldwide consumption.
An Asian middle class spends between 2 to 20 U.S. dollars per day. The ADB said in 2008, Asia's middle class had risen to 56 percent of the population - or nearly 1.9 billion people - up from 21 percent in 1990. In the same period, spending in Asia increased almost three fold, compared to marginal increases in all other regions, including developed countries. As a result, consumption expenditures by developing Asia are now second only to developed countries./.