Consumer Spending Fades in China Economy

(Bloomberg) At the Haiyang Zhuangshi Co. hardware store in Beijing, sales of paint and aluminum window frames are slowing, one sign of a diminished role for consumer spending in China that’s foiling government objectives.

“It seems the peak days are gone,” said owner Hu Mengbin, 42, whose daily revenue has dropped to about 3,000 yuan ($463) from as much as 4,000 yuan last year after China stepped up efforts to rein in home prices. “Between 2006 and 2008 when the property market was red hot, we could make quick money.”

Hu’s loss underlines the dilemma for Premier Wen Jiabao: his campaign to control inflation is undermining attempts to make consumers a bigger driver of the world’s second-largest economy. Failure to lessen dependence on exports and investment spending leaves the nation more vulnerable to swings in external demand and subject to asset booms and busts.

Government data this week showed retail sales growth slowed to 16.9 percent in May, less than the average of the past five years and a figure that’s inflated by soaring prices for food. By contrast, spending on fixed assets such as factories and property climbed 26 percent, excluding rural households, in the first five months, the fastest pace in almost a year. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-16/consumers-fade-in-china-economy-racked-by-inflation-with-peak-days-gone.html

Time to move on to the next exploitable slave state . . . and so on and so on and so on and no one does anything about it and no one cares. "Hey, you don't have it as bad as someone eating bugs and living in a mud hut!" Which, with some twisted fucked up reasoning, is supposed to be justification for "everyone in their stations!" while the wealthy loot.