Key to China's economic recovery: Can excess savings be converted into consumption

According to Goldman Sachs estimates, Chinese households hoarded cash during the epidemic closure, driving the savings rate for Chinese families to a multi-year high of 33% in 2022, three percentage points higher than the trend level before the epidemic in 2019.

China's large industrial companies and exporters have also saved money. From 2020 to 2022, large industrial firms, many state-owned, added an average of $1.1 trillion per year in equivalent liquid assets, more than double the $467 billion added in the five years before the epidemic outbreak.