Consumer China

A new consumer cohort

  • Published 01 Jul 2010

Extensive China Confidential interviews across rural China shed light on the growing band of 'discretionary rural consumers'.

Much attention has been focused on the spending habits of China's emergent middle class. But now another big and hitherto largely overlooked consumer cohort is starting to stir into life. The 721m residents of rural China – including the estimated 211m migrants who work away from their villages mostly in manufacturing factory towns – are often thought of as little more than subsistence consumers who buy little more than what they need to get by. We think this is now changing in a fundamental way. In coming months and years, corporations, investors and bankers will talk increasingly of 'discretionary rural consumers' to denote some 250m-300m people who live in rural areas and have extra cash to spend. Make no mistake; this is a mega-theme in the making.

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China Confidential Funds, a new research service launched by FT China Confidential, is dedicated to illuminating the mainland fund industry. Our team of fund industry experts in Shanghai search out the interesting trends in fund performance, strategy, interactions with overseas funds, regulatory changes, distribution and management. We also use a proprietary system to track the emerging flows of Chinese money. Click here to find out more.

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