Advertisement

My Take | Grow wages, not night markets: how China can revive consumer spending

As lay-offs and salary cuts have shaken industries from finance to manufacturing, the government should find ways to boost household wealth

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
1
Shoppers in Beijing. Photo: AP Photo

It has always been a challenge to find out the income and wealth situation in China due to the country’s complicated social and economic landscape. But there are growing signs that wages have stagnated nationwide, or even started to decline in certain sectors, threatening Beijing’s efforts to boost consumer spending.

Advertisement

To be sure, headline income figures published by the Chinese government still paint a rosy picture.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s per capita disposable income in the first half of 2024 rose 5.4 per cent from a year earlier to 20,773 yuan (roughly US$3,000). The income growth was on a par with the nation’s nominal economic growth rate and far higher than consumer inflation, showing that people’s living standards and spending power continued to improve.

However, anecdotes on the ground and other official data show a different scene. The Chinese finance ministry, for example, published data showing that personal income tax revenues in the first half dropped 5.7 per cent compared with a year ago. Since China had not rolled out any income tax cut, the fall in tax revenues directly reflected shrunken income for the country’s wage earners.

Chinese social media are filled with stories of salary and job cuts. The abrupt lay-off of over 1,000 employees at IBM in China is just one recent example of widespread job losses at foreign businesses. Multinationals with a presence in the world’s second-largest economy going back decades, from car manufacturers to pharmaceuticals, are scaling down their local operations.
The Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai. Photo: Bloomberg
The Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai. Photo: Bloomberg
China’s internet service and finance industry, the two sectors that once offered the best packages, are also in a process of consolidation. From banks to brokerages, salary cuts or even demands for staff to return a portion of their pay have become a trend, as jobs that were once considered “golden rice bowls” lost their shine.
Advertisement
Advertisement