2025 was tipped as the year when China would become the world’s biggest luxury goods market. For years the country’s growing middle class had been a mainstay of luxury goods sales, snapping up everything from high-end handbags to pricey skincare products. But last year purchases plummeted to their lowest level in a decade.
Jiehao Chen, The Economist’s China researcher, and Don Weinland, our China business and finance editor, ask: has China fallen out of love with luxury goods?
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