Increasing speed of consumption falls behind that of income: statistics

The news that disposable income for urban residents raises by two digits has made domestic and foreign commercial giants jubilant. However, the conclusion from the latest report on commercial development in Chinese cities 2004 that increasing speed of consumption lags far behind that of income growth has bewildered them.

Statistics show the city resident's average increase of per capita disposable income in the first half of 2004 reaches 14.29 percent, while the average increase of per capita consumption is only 9.8 percent.

Despite the big gap between income and consumption, robust consumption trend in some cities of medium income level has attracted attentions from investors from home and abroad The consumption ranking of Xi'an, Changchun, and Chongqing are 11, 6, and 5 places higher than their income ranking respectively.

Experts have attributed the tendency in these cities to two factors: these cities are all regional central cities and traditional industrial cities; the influence of life style and consumption level. The commercial strength of these cities deserves attentions from investors.

By People's Daily Online