Chinese consumer confidence up, but unevenly spread
中國消費者信心增加 但仍不均衡

Turning now to the Chinese consume where one of the world’s fastest growing middle classes is overall confident about the general health of their own finances. But one recent survey finds that not all Chinese cities show the same level of optimism.

Worries of China′s potential slowing GDP growth, no problem. Chinese consumers are still willing to open their wallets to spend.

According to research firm AC Nielsen, China′s consumer confidence index or CCI was up slightly from the previous quarter...edging up by 4-points versus the same period a year ago.

That means perceptions on jobs, personal finances and a intention to spend, actually increased.

China’s CCI registered an index of 110, indicating an overall degree of optimism, polled from a survey of respondents across cities and rural areas.

Not surprisingly, lower tiered cities were less optimistic in the survey. In Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, home to manufacturing hubs, confidence levels remained flat or declined, reflecting slow downs in production. That’s reflected in PMI readings that have now plummeted for 3 straight months.

"Second and third tier cities actually the manufacturing industries take a larger portion of the economy, so I think that might be the case for tier 2 and tier 3 cities expectation on employment may be going down a little bit. I think for tier 1 cities, wil see more opportunies more jobs, and probably they think that their income will increase, so that explains why the tier 1 cities CCI is higher." Tao Libao, VP of Media Research of AC Nielsen Greater China said.

The study, conducted worldwide, also showed that Chinese consumers were more confident overall compared with many of their counterparts including Europe and North America.

Which explains why global retail players are increasingly vying for a slice of the China market.

"Huge changes in education levels and disposable income level changes, their perception toward multi-national brands, imports all these factors stimulates their willingness to spend in the market." Kiki Fan, VP of Client Service, AC Nielsen China said.

"We are here at Wangfujing shopping district, where despite the overall slowdown in the economy, shoppers are still thronging the streets, reflecting an upbeat consumer confidence" Stella Lee said.

Experts say that while consumption is on the rise across the board, China has a long way to go before wholly transforming into consumption driven economy.