Hispanics to top blacks in buying power

ATLANTA, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The buying power of Hispanics in the United States will exceed that of blacks in 2007, a university study indicated Friday.

Hispanics' buying power will draw even with African-Americans, at $780 billion, this year and shoot ahead in 2007, the study by the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth found.

Hispanic buying power will be $863.1 billion in 2007, up 8.1 percent from 2006, whereas black buying power will reach $847 billion in 2007, up 6 percent, the study said.

Hispanic economic clout will likely reach nearly $1.2 trillion in 2011, said center director Jeff Humphreys.

But African-Americans' buying power will continue to be much stronger than Hispanics' in most states because Hispanics are much more geographically concentrated than African-Americans, Humphreys said.

California alone accounts for 27 percent of all Hispanic buying power in the U.S.

Hispanics surpassed blacks as the nation's largest minority group in 2001.