The emergence of a Chinese consumer class has been one of the most discussed China topics over the past years. Over the past years personal consumption has grown at an average of 10%, slightly above the GDP growth rate.

In recent research we interviewed Chinese consumers to understand their preferences and how they spend their income. Looking at a 31-year old Shanghai office worker with a masters degree and a monthly income of 10,000 RMB – which  puts him in the top 20% of urban Chinese income earners – we can see that the discretionary spending is still lower than many would have expected.

This example is from one of the respondents and not an average of all respondents.