Consumption remains engine and driving force for China’s growth, Alibaba CEO says
- Growing middle class driving China consumption, Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang says
China’s consumption remains strong compared with other countries, driven by a growing and increasingly affluent middle class and the power of the internet to help improve the lives of rural residents, according to Alibaba Group Holding chief executive Daniel Zhang Yong.
“China has many opportunities, but it is also facing a lot of challenges,” Zhang said in a dialogue session at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos on Thursday. “We have 1 billion consumers, and if we can help China’s market become better, we can become a self-sufficient market,” he said. “Consumption is still the engine and driving force for China’s growth.”
The health of China’s economy and the trade war with the US were among the topics in focus at the annual Davos gathering. On Wednesday, Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan had sought to reassure the world’s business and political elite about the health of China’s economy, which expanded last year at the slowest pace since 1990.
Fourth-quarter numbers out this month showed economic growth slowed to 6.4 per cent, matching the lowest recorded reading last reached during the global financial crisis in 2009.
The world’s two biggest economies remain locked in a trade war that has seen both sides levy billions of dollars in tariffs on each other’s goods and services. In September, the US placed a 10 per cent tariff on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods, bringing the total amount to US$250 billion. China responded by implementing tariffs on US$60 billion worth of US goods, at a varying rate of 5 per cent and 10 per cent.
