Malaysian Mastercard holders spend US$68 M in one weekend of shopping

Malaysian MasterCard holders spent US$76.5 million in 909,518 transactions during the first weekend of the 1Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival 2011 from June 17 to June 19.

Mastercard Worldwide Inc in a statement today said the amount was an increase of US$2.3 million compared with US$74.2 million spent during the first weekend of MMSC last year from July 30 to August 1.

It said Malaysian cardholders' spending increased to US$68.4 million from US$67.1 million previously with 854,776 transactions made.

Meanwhile, the spending of cardholders from overseas increased by 14 per cent to US$8.1 million from US$7.1 million. They made a total of 54,742 transactions.

Vice president and senior country manager Jim Cheah said the encouraging expenditure data from the first weekend of the 1MMSC reflected a positive outlook on the current economic status in Malaysia.

"We are pleased to see that the annual 1MMSC remains attractive to shoppers, thanks to the Tourism Ministry who has worked hard to make this possible for the 11th time," he said.

This year, he said an additional program has been put in place to reward MasterCard cardholders under the MasterCard Shopathon Rewards Program during the 1MMSC where cardholders will be able to redeem prizes according to the value spent on their MasterCard cards.
The full story can be found at Bernama.