Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the high-ranking Chinese university, People’s University, just released its Report on the Chinese Macro economy for 2018 to 2019. The Report showed that Chinese consumers suffered a major increase in debt over the past year mainly due to their investments in the housing market. For the vast majority of the middle class and mid to lower class, their wealth has been locked into the real estate that they acquired and they have almost emptied their savings. This consequently triggered a significant reduction on regular consumer spending. The Report also concluded that, before the year 2015, most of the spending in the housing market was sourced from the mid-upper class. Now the primary housing buyers are in the lower income category. As of September, Chinese residents’ savings saw a year-over-year decline of 6.7 percent, and a two-year decline of 12.6 percent.
Source: Sina, November 24, 2018
https://finance.sina.com.cn/meeting/2018-11-24/doc-ihpevhck4429400.shtml