China’s BIG Challenge for 2022: Getting People to Spend Money

China’s big challenge for 2022: Getting people to spend money
KEY POINTS
* Along with the property market, consumption is one of two areas economists are most concerned about in their China growth outlook.
* Top leaders in Beijing warned at an economic planning meeting this month that growth faces “triple pressure” from shrinking demand, supply shocks, and weakening expectations.
* “How consumption recovers next year will have a very great impact on the economy,” Jianguang Shen, chief economist at Chinese e-commerce company JD.com said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.
Since the pandemic, China's economy has been pulled down by sluggish consumer spending, with no signs of improvement in sight for 2022.
Consumption is one of two areas in China's development prospects that analysts are most concerned about, along with the property market. Businesses and investors have relied on consumer spending because they expect China's middle class to rise in purchasing power in the coming years.