AZ STar -Star net.com
March 15, 1998
ATLANTA (AP) - The buying power of U.S. Hispanic consumers is growing at three times
the rate of inflation and is slowly gaining on black purchasing power, according
to University of Georgia study released yesterday.
Hispanic purchasing power - the total personal income available after taxes for
spending on
goods and services - will reach $348 billion this year, up from $325 billion last
year,
according to figures compiled by the school's Selig Center for Economic Growth.
It is up 65 percent since 1990, when it totaled $211 billion. During the same period,
inflation
was 23 percent, overall U.S. buying power grew 41 percent and black buying power
grew
54 percent to $469 billion this year.
``The most surprising thing is the phenomenal rate of growth,'' center Director Jeff
Humphreys said yesterday.
Americans claiming Hispanic ancestry make up about 11 percent of the population -
28.6
million people - and have 6.1 percent of the $5.7 trillion in total buying power,
the study
said. That is up from 5.2 percent in 1990.
``The black market is still much larger, but Hispanic clout is increasing. We have
really two
markets that are similar and growing much more rapidly than the overall market,''
said
Humphreys, who published a study of black buying power in May.
Jose Niño, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington,
said the
study ``shows the Hispanic market is here and unless corporate America begins to
actively
cater to the market . . . they're going to miss the market.''