Consumption in China

Personal consumption as a share of the economy fell from 46 per cent in the 1990s to about 35 per cent today. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan barely dipped below 50 per cent in their high-growth stages of development. The flipside of record-low consumption is record-high investment. Beijing can be proud of its airports and highways, but empty property across the country is evidence of capital misallocation on a grand scale.

That is from the review of the book Sustaining China’s Economic Growth after the Global Financial Crisis in the Financial Times. The book is by Nicholas Lardy, and the review by Simon Rabinovitch.