STORY CONTINUES BELOW THESE SALTWIRE VIDEOSBy Liangping Gao and Marius Zaharia
Now, many more shoppers who can afford to spend more have joined the bargain-hunters, underscoring the weakness in household demand which has emerged as a key drag on the world's second-largest economy. Consumer prices rose just 0.1% year-on-year in August, in sharp contrast with the surging inflation most other major economies have seen since the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
Luxury executives have been banking on China to help boost overall sales in 2023, but the new-found thriftiness of the middle class, which companies from LVMH to Gucci-owner Kering have courted for years, could pose a problem.