China's cautious consumers offer clues for the post-pandemic world

While corporate executives say business has rebounded, they also say there's a way to go before confidence is fully restored.

Consumers in China remain cautious even though the Covid-19 outbreak has been under control for much of the past year. That’s offering clues for the kind of spending patterns that emerge globally once pent up demand fades.
 

While China didn’t pump up consumers with stimulus checks, its aggressive control over the virus allowed the economy to quickly re-open and drive real household income growth to 13.7% in the first quarter of this year.
 

Yet the consumer recovery has been weaker than expected with economists identifying two major reasons: an unequal distribution of savings from the pandemic and lingering virus worries