Whither the Chinese consumer?

Jim O'Neill | Chatham House| 04 February 2019

For most of the past decade, the growing spending power of China’s expanding middle class has fueled the global economy. After the 2008 financial crisis, I argued that the United States and China would need to swap places – with the US saving more and consuming less, and China doing the opposite. Until the past year, that is largely what had been happening. Not so anymore.

In early January, Apple published a letter to shareholders revising down its ex...