Beijing (AFP) – Consumers pinching pennies, businesses seeing fewer customers, and a pervading sense that the economy just isn’t bouncing back — the mood was grim in Beijing as China posted some of its lowest growth in decades. Government data on Friday showed the economy grew by five percent in 2024, hitting a much-touted government target but its lowest since 1990 with the exception of the Covid-19 pandemic years.
And while officials acknowledged the economy remains beset by “risks and hidden dangers”, they insisted it had “recovered remarkably” and that progress was being made in reversing its steady decline. However, there was little sign of that optimism on the chilly streets of Beijing on Friday morning. “The economy has clearly gone downhill,” Yang Aihua, a 35-year-old tea vendor from central Hubei province, told AFP. “There’s a fear of consuming and spending money because there is no money,” she said.
She said she had noticed a clear decline in custom in her shop, and that those who were coming in were spending less. “For us who do business, it’s obvious that there are much fewer customers coming to our store, and customers’ consumption levels don’t compare to before,” Yang said.
– Money fears – Guo Jian, a petroleum and petrochemicals industry worker, agreed, saying there was a clear decline in consumer optimism after a post-pandemic rebound. “Consumption levels are lower than before,” the 54-year-old from northern Shaanxi province told AFP. People were making “cuts to bigger purchases and extra purchases” as a result, Guo said.
Low consumption has remained a consistent bugbear for China’s economy as it struggles to regain momentum. Beijing has sought to get consumers spending again, last week expanding a subsidy scheme for common household items from water purifiers and refrigerators to laptops and electric vehicles. But tea seller Yang said she remained worried about spending too much. “I’m afraid of thoughtlessly spending money,” she said. “Before, I might have been willing to spend money on handbags. But now I feel so clearly that I make less, so I can’t spend as much as I used to either.”
Another bystander said her low wages meant the consumption slump didn’t concern her too much. “Because we are labourers, we earn the lowest, basic level of income,” cleaner Li Chunyu told AFP. “We don’t think of consuming so much,” she said.
– Bleak prospects – Li, who said she had been in Beijing for 10 years, believed there were still many more opportunities in China’s bustling capital than in her hometown in the neighbouring province of Hebei. “If it was so difficult, or if I couldn’t stand it anymore, I wouldn’t stay this long, right?”
The Chinese economy’s five percent expansion in 2024 would be the envy of many Western economies that are languishing in the doldrums of growth below one percent. However, it’s a far cry from the double-digit growth that drove China’s rapid rise to a global economic superpower.
Officials vowed on Friday the economy would rebound this year despite analysts projecting 2025’s growth could be even lower. Yang agreed that the mood in China remained bleak. “What regular people feel is that they don’t have money.”
© 2024 AFP
