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China to become world's top retail market in 2016
2012/12/24 11:25 KST
By Kim Young-gyo
2012/12/24 11:25 KST
By Kim Young-gyo
HONG KONG, Dec. 24 (Yonhap) -- China will become the world's biggest retail market in 2016, global advisory firm PwC said Monday.
Growing 10 percent or more annually from 2012 through 2016, China will overtake the U.S. as the world's biggest retail market in four years, the firm predicted.
Despite the country's slower economic growth, the Chinese retail industry is expected to grow 10.9 percent in 2012.
China's economic growth is losing steam due to the eurozone debt crisis and other global uncertainties.
The gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.4 percent on-year in the July-September period, slowing from the 9.1-percent increase during the same period a year earlier. The world's No. 2 economy grew 7.6 percent on-year in the second quarter and 8.1 percent in the first quarter.
However, global retailers will continue to bank on China to drive growth, PwC said.
In the Chinese Communist Party's National Congress held last month, the country's leadership aims to double China's GDP and per capita income of both urban and rural households by 2020.
"Retailers operating in China are no longer just focusing on the bigger first and second-tier cities. They're now expanding in third and fourth-tier cities as disposal incomes in these untapped markets increase," said Carrie Yu, PwC's retail and consumer leader for China and the Asia Pacific.
The firm also expected that Chinese consumers will continue to drive global luxury market growth in 2013 and onwards.
China's online retailing will enjoy exponential growth, accounting for a 23.4 percent share of global business-to-consumer e-commerce sales in 2016, up from 9.9 percent in 2012.
Meanwhile, PwC said South Korea's retail industry will moderately grow through 2016.
Compared to an estimated 1 percent growth in 2012, the South Korean retail market will grow 2.1 percent in 2013, 2.2 percent in 2014, 2.8 percent in 2015 and 2.9 percent in 2016.