Whither the Chinese Consumer?
Between 2010 and 2017, consumer spending in China increased by almost $3 trillion dollars, and global brands came to rely on the Chinese market for a growing share of sales. But now that Apple has revised downward its expected revenues, citing slowing Chinese growth, the outlook for such firms – and for the world economy – has dimmed.
WASHINGTON, DC – For most of the past decade, the growing spending power of China’s expanding middle class has fueled the global economy. After the 2008 financial crisis, I argued that the United States and China would need to swap places – with the US saving more and consuming less, and China doing the opposite. Until the past year, that is largely what had been happening. Not so anymore.