China: Women Team Up Online to Save Money ; Not Helping In The Economic Growth (image@Pixabya)
Chinese women are teaming up online to save money. The trend named as “da zi” or partners has garnered millions of views online platforms like Xiaohongshu, China”s version of Instagram. In February 2023, the hashtag “saving da zi” trend had 1.7 million views, as per the data analysis firm Newsrank. On Weibo, the microblogging website, the trend had millions of views.
Reportedly, the Chinese people”s concern over saving up money sprouted after the Corona pandemic. Though the Chinese economy has grown faster than expected during the first quarter, the deepening property crisis, falling foreign investments, and the mounting local government debts outpace any growth. A s per the National University of Singapore”s public policy professor, Lu Xi, the trend shows a “low confidence in the future economy”.
The Chinese citizens feel driven to “prepare for danger”, as many people are losing their job. Mostly, women aged between 20 and 40 are engaged in the online saving trend. Everyday, they would log their budget and expenses on the platform. They would even help each other to stop making impulse purchases. For instance, when one member of the group was tempted to buy a luxury bag worth, 5,000 yuan (Rs.57,650, $690). However, after talking to other women in the group, she settled for a second-hand bag, which was much cheaper, as reported by BBC. The media outlet cited a woman who said that she was able to save up to 40 percentage after teaming up with others driven to save on online. She said the women feel a sense of camaraderie among themselves.
Beijing has one of the world”s highest saving rates. As per official figure, in 2023, the country”s households put over 138 trillion yuan in the bank. Which is almost 14 percentage increase from a year earlier. According to Dr Lu, the highest level of savings might be a huge problem for the government. Some women even opt to for saving the money in a traditional way, that is keeping cash at home.
Though the country”s central bank can boost the economy by cutting the interest rates as it makes the savings less attractive, if people continue to save and avoid spending their money, it could blunt the bank”s ability to influence the economy.
