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India's Visa card sales reach 5.5 billion rupees

BOMBAY: Visa International has recorded a 94 percent increase in card sales in India reaching 5.5 billion rupees for the year to December 1995, the company said on Tuesday.

"The card market in India is one of the fastest growing in the Asia-Pacific region with an average annual growth rate of 50 percent," Chandra Agnihotri, Visa's country manager for India said in a statement.

Agnihotri said there are over 500,000 Visa cardholders in India.

International Visa cardholders spent $191 million in India and Indian Visa cardholders spent $14 million overseas for the year to December 1995, the company said.

It said Visa is the world's largest consumer payment system with over 12 million merchant world-wide accepting Visa credit cards.-Reuter