According to a report from Credit Suisse, 109 million Chinese adults qualified for its middle-class rank as compared to 92 million in the US.
A Chinese individual that has $28,000 in assets qualifies as a member of the middle class, the report said. For a middle class indivudal in the US, the figure is $50,000.
The firm noted that the middle class drives a significant part of demand for a wide range of consumer goods and financial services.
“The growth of wealth in emerging markets has been most impressive, including a five-fold rise in China since the beginning of the century,” Credit Suisse’s CEO Tidjane Thiam said in a separate statement.
Fund houses identified online retail, discretionary consumer products, financial services and real estate as sectors that will ride the wave of the Chinese middle-class growth.
Standard Life Investments said last week the growth of e-commerce platforms have allowed retailers to extend their reach even to consumers in China’s tier 3 and 4 cities.
Franklin Templeton Asset Management noted at Fund Selector Asia’s Alternatives Forum in Singapore last month that China’s real estate market would expand as rural dwellers continue moving into urban regions – with Tianjin, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen possibly becoming megacities.
“By 2030, China will have built 50,000 new skyscrapers – the equivalent of up to ten New York cities,” FTAM said.
New Investment Management said last week that it believes Chinese banks and property companies are good long-term bets. It disclosed that it is retaining exposure in the Chinese financial sector through wealth management companies, insurance companies and selected REITs.
