Rising macroeconomic uncertainty has sent confidence to a 14-year low among China’s high-net-worth families, prompting more cautious spending and investment decisions, the latest Hurun survey indicates.
The Hurun Research Institute report showed that high-end consumption among luxury consumers shrank by about 5 per cent last year from 2024 levels, to 1.56 trillion yuan (US$224.4 billion).
Meanwhile, the economic confidence index for China’s high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) has declined for the fourth straight year to 5.4 points – the lowest level since 2012 – with just over a quarter of respondents expressing “strong confidence” in the economy.
By comparison, the index stood at 6.6 during the 2018 global financial market crisis and remained between 6.7 and 7.2 throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
The institute surveyed 470 Chinese families with investible assets of more than 10 million yuan for its report, which was released on Friday.
Only 26 per cent of respondents expressed “strong confidence” in China’s economy over the next two years, down sharply from 58 per cent in the 2022 Hurun Chinese luxury consumer survey.