The Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) Wealth Report blog has found that the great spending party of the western rich has not come to a stop just because of the global economic upheaval: it’s just moved to China.
China’s government stimulus, rising consumer spending and 6 - 8% GDP growth (depending on which source you trust) has kept China’s millionaire-making-machine well oiled. It also has fueled a luxury-buying binge as the newly rich Chinese seek to show their status.
A Goldman Sachs Group report ranks China as the world’s second- largest luxury-goods market, after Japan. China could surpass Japan this year. Japan’s wealthy registered net-worth declines of 16.7% according to this WSJ article, while Hong Kong registered a staggering 61% decline.
A survey by New York market research firm Pao Principle confirms this: it found that almost 90% of ‘well heeled’ Chinese surveyed had purchased a designer handbag in the past year.
It said nearly two-thirds of the men surveyed and a third of women also bought a luxury watch in the same period, while another 30% said they had gone home with one of the signature blue boxes of high-end jeweler Tiffany.
But as the sun sets on ‘bling’ for the US, Japan and western Europe it is clearly rising in China.
