Consumers are cautious about purchases as growth prospects slow in the world’s second-biggest economy.
| For Song Jingli, a 39-year-old founder of a communications start-up in Beijing, 2023 was supposed to be a year of big spending. She and her husband hoped to travel to New Zealand and buy a second apartment in the Chinese capital.
The sustained weakness in overall price increases – core inflation excluding food and energy prices has edged up but remains at 0.8 per cent – has confounded expectations that the removal of COVID-19 restrictions at the start of the year would unleash pent-up consumer demand as it did in other major economies.The spectre of deflation in the mainland also comes amid signs that consumers are putting off major purchases, especially of houses, cars and travel, until confidence returns.
Memes suggest replacing laundry detergent with washing powder, using CeraVe lotion instead of premium La Mer moisturising cream and quitting the gym to follow workout videos at home.Retail sales in July were slightly up compared with the same month last year, and price declines for daily products are not widespread despite the overall decline in consumer prices.
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