China Center Chart of the Week: Household consumption growth continuing to slow – and slow faster than GDP growth

This release’s chart compares three measures of the growth rate of household consumption in China up to year-end 2013 (adjusted for inflation). All three measures point to decelerating growth in household consumption, especially the two GDP-based measures considered to be the most robust. The quarterly GDP survey measure shows a rather rapid deceleration. The slowing household consumption growth correlates closely to the continually decelerating overall GDP growth we have been reporting. However, household consumption growth looks to be slower than officially reported GDP growth and decelerating faster, suggesting that economic rebalancing in favor of more consumption-led growth is not happening.