Maxing out: Spend by MasterCard holders jumped 11.2% in GSS 2014

They spent over US$1.6 billion this year.

A report released today by MasterCard appears to belie the gloomy statistics about the Great Singapore Sale. MasterCard cardholders spent US$1,659 million at this year’s GSS2014, an increase of 11.2% from last year.
Tourist cash made up over a third of total spend at GSS2014. MasterCard holders from China have overtaken Japan and Indonesia and emerged as the third highest spenders this year.

Visitors from China spent US$40.8 million on their MasterCard cards during the period, making a total of 236,000 transactions in Singapore – up 30% from the same period last year.

Singapore MasterCard cardholders contributed to the bulk of the MasterCard receipts, spending US$1,168 million, a 12.8% year-on-year increase.

Resident cardholders chose to pay by MasterCard more than 10 million times during GSS2014, with one million more transactions recorded this GSS compared to last year. This represents a 10.7% growth to 10.2 million transactions made by Singapore-issued MasterCard cards.

"After a relatively muted first few months of the year due to challenging retail conditions, the pick-up in spending by Singapore and visiting MasterCard cardholders during the Great Singapore Sale is certainly encouraging for our industry. Moving forward, we will continue to encourage our retailers to improve their product and service offerings for to make it more exciting for consumers,” said Dr Jannie Chan, President of the Singapore Retailers Association.