MasterCard sees green shoots in U.S. economy

By Juan Lagorio

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. economy showed some shy signs of improvement in April, but the outlook for European countries still looks mixed, credit card network MasterCard (MA.N) said on Wednesday.

U.S. sales of discretionary items -- from leisure to luxury goods -- fell by 10 percent to 27 percent in April, while sales of nondiscretionary products such as groceries were flat to higher, according to SpendingPulse, a unit of MasterCard Advisors.

Those figures improved compared to March levels, MasterCard CEO Robert Selander said during an investor meeting at company headquarters in Purchase, New York. "The (economic) decline is slowing."

Still, Selander said things will get worse before they get better until the government stimulus plan starts a sustainable recovery.

Chief Financial Officer Martina Hund-Mejean said U.S. purchase volumes are declining in the second quarter at a higher rate than in the first quarter.

However, cross-border volumes reversed the trend of the first three months of 2009 and are stabilizing, and processed transactions are still growing at the low end of a 7-to-8 percent range, helped by debit cards.

"That's pretty nice growth. People are transacting more on the cards albeit lower ticket prices," Hund-Mejean told Reuters in an interview.

Europe, which entered recession after the United States, is expected to recover later than the world's largest economy. The United States and Europe represent 70 percent of MasterCard's gross dollar transaction volume.

MasterCard, the world's second largest credit card network, is partially insulated from the credit crisis because it processes transactions rather than lends funds. But the company has seen a slowdown of revenue and transaction volumes as consumers used their credit cards less.

The company reiterated a forecast that 2009 revenue growth will fall short of its 12-to-15 percent target as Americans use their credit cards less and a stronger dollar reduces the value of sales abroad.

The company has been trimming advertising and marketing costs, jobs, travel expenses and consulting fees to cushion the impact of slowing revenue. MasterCard forecast 2009 operating expenses would be flat to slightly lower compared with 2008.

DEBIT EXPECTED TO GROW

With credit card defaults at record highs, the use of debit cards is likely to gain momentum as consumers stick to stricter budgets.

Chris McWilton, president of U.S. markets of MasterCard, said debit cards were a "high-growth opportunity" in its domestic market, where rival Visa Inc (V.N) has taken a strong lead.

MasterCard's first-quarter U.S. credit volume fell 17.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with an 11.4 percent decline in the 2008 fourth quarter; U.S. debit volume grew 5.6 percent in the first quarter, in line with growth in the fourth quarter.