Chinese middle class now the world's largest

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: AFP

China's middle class has overtaken the United States to become the world's largest, Credit Suisse said Tuesday in its latest report on global wealth.

Asia will be the scene for the greatest expansion of the world's middle class, it predicted.

The Swiss bank said with 109 million adults "this year, the Chinese middle class for the first time outnumbered" that in the United States at 92 million.

While the number of middle class worldwide grew last year at a slower pace than the wealthy, it "will continue to expand in emerging economies overall, with a lion's share of that growth to occur in Asia," Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam said in a statement accompanying the bank's annual Global Wealth Report.

Read more: https://in.news.yahoo.com/chinese-middle-class-now-worlds-152813920.html

[enid602]

1. China

That only leaves a billion poor people left in China.

[YOHABLO]

2. 1.4 billion people live in China. Still they've accomplished a lot. Gee, wonder why?

You don't think Walmart had anything to do with it?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. The definition of 'middle class' is confusing

That AFP report says

The report used a floor for the middle class as having wealth double the annual medium income for their country.

but the Credit Suisse press release says

We define the middle class in terms of a wealth band rather than an income range, corresponding to
those with wealth between USD 50,000 and USD 500,000. A wealth-based definition, versus an
income-based one, conforms better to the widespread view that middle-class membership is resilient
to temporary setbacks. The bands are adjusted over time to reflect inflation, and also vary across
countries depending on local purchasing power.

https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/mediarelease-assets/pdf/2015/10/gwr-2015-global-press-release.pdf

So it's not clear if the lower point of wealth for China and other countries is $50,000, or twice 'annual medium income', whatever that is.

From that press release, we have the top 10 median wealth figures (I think a median figure is a good comparison - it shows what the 'average person' experiences) (and the change from last year):

1 New Zealand 182,600 2.8%
2 Australia 168,300 -20.9%
3 Belgium 150,300 -15.6%
4 United Kingdom 126,500 -13.2%
5 Norway 119,600 -41.1%
6 Switzerland 107,600 -1.5%
7 Singapore 98,900 -10.0%
8 Japan 96,100 -14.9%
9 Italy 88,600 -31.5%
10 France 86,200 -18.9%

The USA does get to number 4 in the average wealth, though.

On edit: looking at the full report, the press release is (not surprisingly) accurate, and the AFP article was the one that was a bit misleading. The definition is $50k to $500k - and the report points out that for the USA, $50k is about twice the median yearly earnings. But in other countries, the PPP exchange rate for $50k is used to get a local figure, rather than whatever 2 years' median earnings works out as.

Also, the way I read it, that's $50k and $500k per adult. So if you are in a 2 adult household, your combined net wealth must be over $100k to be 'middle class' for this report. The role of retirement savings, and expected government or company pensions where you don't own the capital, in such international wealth comparisons is always important - I'll look to see how they handled that.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. We used to have a middle class. nt

[uawchild]

5. China prospers, the US declines --- thank you globalization and off-shoring of jobs.

Last edited Wed Oct 14, 2015, 08:46 AM - Edit history (6)

This ain't your Grandpa's China...



Congratulations to China, but much of their amazing growth has been at the expense of American working families.

They used to say "what's good for business is good for America", yes, but that was in the pre-1980's world where businesses invested here at home. Look at the increasing trade deficit that is sucking the economic life out of our country that is the direct result of the 1% no longer caring where they make their profits. That saying should be updated to "What's good for Business is good for the 1%", and THAT will be true until income inequality and globalization's "race to the bottom" off-shoring of jobs and technology are confronted and rolled back.