[News Terms] Wallet-Closing Chinese Middle-Class Investment Trend: 'Special Forces-Style Savings'

As the phenomenon of 'Peak China,' where the Chinese economy has reached its peak and begun to decline, becomes a reality, 'special forces-style deposits' are gaining popularity in China.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Special forces-style deposits refer to a financial strategy where individuals visit banks across the country like a special forces unit to sign up for time-limited deposit products with high interest rates. As making money becomes increasingly difficult, people have started paying close attention to interest rates and quickly subscribing to special promotional products as if executing a mission, which is why this method is likened to special forces. With the real estate crisis causing a simultaneous downturn in the stock market, individual investors are turning to banks and striving to earn even a single extra penny in interest.

This trend is particularly strong among young people in their 20s and 30s. On Chinese social media platform Weibo, posts sharing methods to find banks offering slightly higher interest rates than others have become popular, with various personal experiences being shared.

The popularity of these special forces-style deposits in China can also be interpreted as an increase in the middle class tightening their wallets. This could act as a major variable in the recovery of the Chinese economy.

A similar sense of crisis is being detected within China as well. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported, "As the prolonged real estate market slump and stock price declines continue, the wealth of the local middle class is steadily disappearing, putting the world's largest middle class at risk," and added, "Economists warn that without a strong economic recovery, this group, estimated to number around 400 million, could shrink." Earlier last month, China’s state-run Economic Daily also issued a commentary emphasizing the necessity and urgency of nurturing the middle class.

Although there is no official definition of the Chinese middle class, the National Bureau of Statistics of China defines it as a three-person household with an annual income of 100,000 to 500,000 yuan (approximately 18.5 million to 92.5 million KRW). This group comprises about 400 million people, accounting for roughly 30% of the total population of 1.4 billion.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.