Do you feel richer this year? Because the government says you are. Says we all are, and we’re spending more! That's the takeaway from the latest government statistics. Consumer spending in Shanghai during 2018 increased by 7.9% to 1.27bn rmb. That's because we all have more money — 68,034rmb in disposable income each, on average, or 8.7% more than 2017. A lot of that is going to online shopping, with online retail sales up by 15.8% over 2017 to 151 billion rmb. Just in Shanghai.
The rosy glow of individual prosperity comes even as overall economic growth in Shanghai keeps slowing down, from 6.9% in 2017 to 6.6% in 2018. (If you're curious, Shanghai's total economy is worth 3.27 trillion rmb.) The decrease in growth was described as being “within a reasonable range” by Shanghai’s Municipal Bureau of Statistics, and when compared to the global GDP growth rate of 3.7% in 2018 (says the IMF), it sure sounds “reasonable”.
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