China – five consumption myths
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:13 - Why Chinese Consumption Matters
01:44 - Myth 1: Consumer Confidence = Spending?
03:15 - Myth 2: Retail Sales Tell All
05:19 - Myth 3: Consumption Hasn’t Recovered
07:23 - Myth 4: No Spending on Services
09:08 - Myth 5: Rising Savings = Weak Consumption
11:51 - Consumption’s Share of GDP
13:22 - Wrapping Up: Cyclical Recovery Confirmed
15:12 - Outro: What’s Next?
If you prefer to read, this is a longer note on consumption that I wrote late last year:
China’s Consumption Challenge | China Leadership Monitor
With consumer confidence collapsing and retail sales barely growing, it has become common to think that consumption in China is suffering from a cyclical crisis that is intensifying the economic difficulties caused by the property slump. The reality is different, however, with consumption in China regaining its pre-Covid trend, a recovery that is rare among the major economies. This bounce back has been made possible by the normalization of the spike in savings seen during the pandemic. With the