Police in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong bust another piracy racket this month, seizing 17, 126 phoney Visa and MasterCard credit cards. That Guangdong's savvy pirates are shifting resources from faking Gucci bags and Viagra tablets to consumer credit is telling. Rupert Keeley, regional head of the real Visa, says that developing East Asia is, and will remain for years, Visa's fastest-growing market. And the trend is not confined to plastic. Home mortgages, car loans, unsecured credit: all forms of consumer finance are soaring, albeit from a small base. It adds up to a seismic shift in the region's economies, banks and consumer patterns. For decades, the "Asian" model of export-led development was based on high rates of saving and investment, with consumption suppressed. China's saving rate, at about 40%, is one of the highest in the world, and other East and South-East Asian countries are not far behind.
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