China's consumption is expected to grow to $6 trillion from the current $4 trillion in the next three years thanks to the development of e-commerce, according to JPMorgan Chase, ThePaper.cn reported on Dec. 17.
Consumption and innovation will serve as two major driving forces promoting economic growth of the country, noted Jing Ulrich, managing director and vice chairman of Asia Pacific at JPMorgan Chase, who recently attended the 2017 Fortune Global Forum held in Guangzhou, China.
According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, consumption has contributed over 60% to the country's economic growth in recent years. The figure was 64.5% in the first three quarters of this year, up 2.8% year on year, and 31.7% more than that made by capital flow.
Zhu Baoliang, chief economist at the State Information Center, predicted that given the stability of consumption demand, the country's household consumption will experience more accelerated upgrading in the next year or two.
Ulrich told ThePaper.cn that increasing disposable income, the narrowing income gap, and enhanced social security are all factors affecting consumption. In addition, the changing age structure of the population and decreased household savings will also further drive the growth of consumption.
"In fact, innovation shares a close bond with consumption," said Quan Heng, head of the Research Institute of World Economy of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
As a driving force that promotes consumption growth, innovation will accelerate the structural upgrading of consumption through the new technologies, new forms, and new modes it produced, Quan explained.
In recent years, China has gradually become an innovation power. It rose from 25th to 22nd on the Global Innovation Index released by World Intellectual Property Organization, becoming the only middle-income country in the top 25.
In the future, innovation will keep playing its role in changing China's economic pattern.
"China's innovation in the future won't be an issue for the government," Yao Yang, dean of the National School of Development of Peking University, expressed his confidence.
