The familiar pattern of Chinese consumption growth

Since the beginning of China’s ‘reform and opening up’, high rates of investment spending have dramatically expanded the productive capacity of the Chinese economy, and accommodated the migration of hundreds of millions of rural agricultural labourers to the industrial and services sectors. This has underwritten a sustained boom in Chinese household consumption, even though it has declined as a share of Chinese GDP. While unique in its magnitude, China appears to be following the same development path of Japan, Korea and Singapore. As the migration of the labour force from agriculture to urban based industry runs its course, and as higher income consumers demand more labour intensive services, household incomes — and with it household consumption — is likely to stabilise as a share of GDP.