Credit card penetration rates may begin rising again in China, as the government deregulates the industry and lowers the cost of card transactions for borrowers and merchants. In a survey by Financial Times Confidential Research, urban respondents prefer to pay by mobile phone, but are definitely still using their credit cards. The 30 to 35-year-old […]
Category: Consumer
China’s sharp rise in air travel is compounding chronic flight delays, making flying an ordeal for increasing numbers of airline passengers and threatening to choke growth in the country’s booming aviation sector, according to The Wall Street Journal. China’s big three state-run airlines – Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines – were the least […]
Bloomberg reports that growth in China’s median income dropped below the rate of economic expansion in the first quarter for the first time since the data was first released in 2014. Back then, the median grew at almost double the pace of total output. China’s gauge of median personal income grew at 6.7% in the first quarter, […]
Countries like Myanmar, where only 2% of the nation’s 53m people have credit cards, are ground zero for China’s state-controlled card-payment monopoly UnionPay’s attempt to steal global market share from companies such as Visa and MasterCard, the Financial Times reports. “For many people in emerging markets, this will be the first card they come in […]
Chinese alcohol brand Kweichow Moutai, best known for brewing the fiery grain-based drink baijiu, has overtaken Johnnie Walker-brand owner Diageo to become the world’s most valuable liquor-company, the Financial Times reports. Moutai’s market capitalization reached $71.5bn on the Shanghai exchange on Friday, while Diageo’s London capitalization is $71.1bn. The Chinese company’s share price has soared […]