Asia’s purchasing power has increased significantly during the past decade, and households are choosing to spend an increasing proportion of their income on discretionary items such as cell phones and cars. This trend, however, is in its infancy. Though the number of cell-phone subscribers in China exceeds the entire U.S. population, the penetration level remains below that of more developed countries in the region. And even though cars increasingly congest Chinese and Indian cities, car owners remain a distinct minority. Similarly, though the “hypermarket” (a supermarket/department-store combo) has seen rapid growth, the sector remains underdeveloped.

All prices are in $ U.S. with exchange rate as of year-end 2004.
*Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is a measure which calculates what a given sum could buy on the global market, after accounting for differences in local price levels across countries. **This is measured by average revenue per user by a leading provider of cell-phone services. ***Indian car is 1.4L, Japanese car is 1.5L.
Sources: World Development Indicators Database, World Bank, CEIC, HSBC, company reports.