Waking up domestic consumption

Economists have a lack of data from the 1990s onwards to help them decide how China's domestic consumption can catch up with its overall economic progress.

Many of them have found Chinese consumers' willingness to spend very languid, almost abnormally so. That is usually attributed to two factors - one is real and the other is more of conventional wisdom.

Under the first factor, consumers tend to spend less when they receive less protection from social security.