Global companies have been fooled into investing too much in the wrong parts of China by inflated predictions of growth in the country’s economy and middle class, a report has claimed.
US-based think-tank the Demand Institute and its parent institution the Conference Board argue that the Chinese economy will grow much more slowly than most analysts predict and suggest that the promise of an enormous middle class in the future is largely illusory.
“Overly optimistic growth and consumption projections for China have misled foreign investors,” the report says. “Most Chinese citizens have a long way to go before entering the middle class.”