<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>Consumer spending in Asia is likely to reach $32 trillion by 2030, powered by the emergence of a rising middle class in the fast growing economies of China and India, the Asian Development Bank said on Thursday.<br><br>Contributing 43 per cent of worldwide consumption in the next 20 years, Asia will assume the traditional role of the US and European middle classes, the Manila-based bank said in a report released in New Delhi.<br><br>It estimated Asian consumers spent about $4.3 trillion, or about a third of OECD consumption expenditure in 2008.<br><br>"Developing Asia's middle class is rapidly increasing its size and purchasing power, and will be an increasingly important force in global economic rebalancing," Chief Economist Jong-Wha Lee said in the ADB's 2010 report on key regional indicators.<br><br>Nearly 56 per cent of the population, or about 1.9 billion people, have pulled themselves into the ranks of those earning $2 to $20 per day in 2008, the ADB said, with the number growing by around 205 million in India from 1990 to 2008, second only to China.<br><br>But it cautioned that more than 75 per cent of India's middle class remain in straitened circumstances, and at risk of falling back into poverty if hit by a major economic shock such as the global financial crisis.<br><br>Economic growth in China added 800 million people to the middle class between 1990 and 2008, when spending in Asia rose almost three-fold versus marginal increases in other regions, it said.<br><br>The rise of the middle class in Asia could sharpen environmental and health concerns that until recently were more typical of wealthier parts of Asia and the world.<br><br>(Reuters)</p>