CHINA TOPIX

03/29/2024 02:04:08 am

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Chinese Middle Class Income Growth Dwarfs US Counterparts

Incomes of Chinese middle class are outpacing its American counterparts, CNN reported.

(Photo : Getty Images) Incomes of Chinese middle class are outpacing its American counterparts, CNN reported.

China's average middle-class family earns nearly 52,000 yuan ($8,000) lesser compared with their American counterparts, but China's income growth is dwarfing US families, CNN reported.

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Dubbed as "Asian miracle," Chinese middle class was upbeat with a staggering 70 percent bump in their income between 1988 and 2008. US' middle class as well as other developed countries, on the other hand, did not see any progress, reporting only a 4 percent climb over the same 20-year timeframe, according to economist Branko Milanovic.

Chinese middle class families still earn around 52,000 yuan ($8,000) annually, less than the US residents with 351,000 yuan ($54,000), the World Bank revealed. However, Chinese families are getting richer at a faster pace.

Consultancy firm McKinsey suggests that in six years' time, the majority of China's urban middle class will start receiving an average annual pay between 58,500 yuan ($9,000) and 221,000 yuan ($34,000). Moreover, they are enjoying a better life with more frequent dine outs, travel, and purchase of new cars.

Even though the United States has a larger figure now, a typical family still earns the same salary over the last 30 years. American employees are also anxious that they are just a step closer to financial destruction and expenses are constantly going up.

According to Milanovic, China is not alone on embracing a better life, as middle class families from other countries such as India, Thailand, and Vietnam have also experienced swelling bank accounts over the past three decades.

"Globalization is a good force, but you're not going to sell globalization to your domestic population by telling them how good it is for China," he said.

Although he cannot prove that trade and globalization indeed bolstered Asia's middle class to move and US' middle class to lag, he said it is a "plausible story."

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