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BEIJING: A huge middle class is emerging in China which will make it the world's third-largest consumer market by 2025, consultancy McKinsey & Co says.
China has all too often been a graveyard for the profit ambitions of multinational companies, but McKinsey said its bullish forecast was anchored by economic and demographic forces already well entrenched.
Even without major changes in savings behaviour or particular government policies, China's urban middle class was poised to enjoy a spectacular rise in incomes that would catapult China's consumer market past Germany by 2015, McKinsey said.
And by 2025 China would be approaching Japan, second only to the United States in real dollar terms.
He estimated that 59 per cent of Chinese would live in cities by 2025, up from 43 per cent today, and a growing number would be able to afford a middle-class lifestyle.
- REUTERS
