Retail Sales Forecast to Grow in Asia/Pacific in First Half 2007

February 2007– Retail sales across Asia/Pacific are expected to show continued growth for the first half of 2007, according to the latest MasterIndex? of Retail forecast released by MasterCard Worldwide today. China takes the lead with an anticipated 12% year-on-year growth for the first six months, with the South East Asian markets of the Philippines (9.60 %), Thailand (7%), Malaysia (6.50%) and Singapore (5.20%) following. While the forecast is for positive expansion across the 12 Asia/Pacific markets included in the report, growth rates for the first six months are expected to be more modest than the robust growth two years ago when the consumption revolution in the region drove almost half the markets into double-digit growth year-on-year. “While continued growth in retail sales is expected across the region, the source of growth varies significantly between markets,” observes Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic advisor of MasterCard Worldwide in Asia/Pacific. “Taiwan’s domestic consumption is basically linked to the performance of its export sector whereas growth in the Philippines has been coming from rising overseas workers’ remittances. In other markets, appreciation in their currencies has also helped. With the exception of China, private household consumption has not contributed as much to overall GDP growth. For the consumption revolution to continue to unfold in Asia, this will need to change,” adds Dr. Hedrick-Wong. The MasterIndex of Retail’s forecast for the first half of 2007 is shown in the table below. Forecast for 1st half of 2007 Retail Sales Forecast Year-on-Year Growth Australia* A$93.45 billion 4.90% China*** 4082.23 billion yuan 12.00% Hong Kong* HK$108.51 billion 3.20% Indonesia*** 190.71 trillion rupiah 4.60% Japan* 56.62 trillion yen 1.25% Korea* 71.41 trillion won 3.40% Malaysia*** 36.13 billion ringgit 6.50% New Zealand* NZ$17.76 billion 3.80% Philippines*** 436.21 billion peso 9.60% Singapore** SG$16.97 billion 5.20% Taiwan* NT$1595.42 billion 2.30% Thailand*** 604.64 billion baht 7.00% (*excludes hospitality, catering and auto sales) (**excludes hospitality and catering, includes auto sales) (*** includes wholesale, hospitality, catering, auto sales) Conducted twice a year in June and December, the MasterIndex of Retail was launched in June 2003 by MasterCard as part of its knowledge leadership initiatives in Asia/Pacific. Combining 10 years of retail sales data , factoring in the secular trend of growth of the retail industry, and using the MasterIndexTM of Consumer Confidence as an independent variable , it provides six-month forecasts of retail sales growth in 12 markets: Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. It is among the MasterCard MasterIndex suite of research products; the others include: - The flagship MasterIndex? of Consumer Confidence - the region’s most comprehensive and longest running consumer sentiment survey - The MasterIndex? of Travel, which combines outbound travel forecasts for the region with a survey of Asian travelers’ lifestyle trends - The MasterIndex? of Women's Advancement, which compares the socio-economic level of women to men.

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