Shoppers throughout the West, wary(谨防的) of a double-dip recession(经济衰退), are still pinching their pennies. However, Chinese consumers are opening their wallets big time. According to Mckinsey, shop sales in China have grown by 25 per cent annually from 2007 to 2009. Consumer confidence is now at its highest point since 2007 and female shoppers are leading the way. Chinese women saved just 24 per cent of their income, compared with 55 per cent in 2006, according to a recent study in the magazine Women of China. What’s more, three quarters of Chinese women say that they’re the ones who control the family purse strings, which means they are an “emerging powerhouse within the powerhouse” of China. In the 1950s women contributed just 20 per cent of household income, which rose to about 40 per cent in the 1990s and then reached 50 per cent last year. In a recent study of Chinese consumer behavior, Mckinsey found that women tend to shop more frequently than men, and spend more on personal-care products and food. Men, by contrast, tend to spend more of their income on gadgets(小玩意), drinks and alcohol, dining out, and socializing. They also tend to save for the bigger-ticket items, like cars and houses. Chinese women make up an ever-growing small part of the market—up from 20 per cent a decade ago to 50 per cent last year. It’s estimated that in the next five years women will account for 55 per cent of the$9 billion market. “The future is female,” concludes a January HSBC report on special and expensive goods in China. 小题1:According to the passage, Chinese women ________.
|