Hispanics represent $40 billion of purchasing power in Arizona, a state where Latinos have been buffeted by the effects of harsh laws targeting undocumented immigrants.

The figure is contained in a report released here Friday by the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, DATOS: Focus on the Hispanic Market, which also reveals that the state is home to 65,000 Latino-owned businesses.

“The fiscal health and the expansion of the state and national economy increasingly depend on the economic vitality of the Latino community,” AZHCC President Gonzalo de la Melena told Efe.
The AZHCC study shows Arizona ranks fifth among the states in the number of Hispanic-owned businesses and that 11 percent of those firms belong to women.

Arizona Latinos have seen their purchasing power increase by 127 percent in the past decade.
Here in Phoenix, the state capital, Hispanic consumers spent $7.8 billion in 2010, a figure projected to grow to $11.5 billion in 2015.

Spending by Hispanic consumers is expected to soar 119 percent by 2020, about double the increase for the general population.

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