China is an important consumer market in the world

Source: Department of Regional Openess / Updated: 2021-04-30

By co-buliding “The Belt and Road”, China has become more closely connected with the world. Sharp increases in China's retail sales volume indicates that China has become a linchpin of global consumer spending, Khairy Tourk, professor of economics at the Stuart School of Business, which is part of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, told Xinhua News Agency.

"The Chinese middle-income group has experienced the fastest expansion the world has ever seen. Its size in 2020 was 400 million, and it is expected to double by the year 2035. The group is the largest in the world and (Chinese) consumers keep increasing their spending faster than any other countries in the world," he added.

Private consumption is now the main driver of economic growth in China. "Given the importance of middle-income group spending as a major component of private consumption, there is no doubt that the group in China is holding up world growth," he said.

"The world has a large stake in China's economic growth; the (Chinese) economy has become an indispensable part of the world," Tourk said, adding that this bodes well for the global economy and world peace, and explains why the idea of decoupling is a non-starter.

Tourk attributed China's ongoing economic success to its proper handling of COVID-19."The effective way in which China dealt with the pandemic has been one of the best ways to demonstrate scientific knowhow, government competence, and people's trust in the leadership," he said.

Furthermore, "China (is) supplying global public goods in the form of pandemic aid to different countries," and sending medical help to numerous countries. "With developing nations having been extremely wounded by the pandemic, the Chinese manufactured vaccines are practically the only hope for most poor countries to terminate the pandemic," Tourk said.