China Tells

A horizontal comparison of the household Asset portfolio among a few big countries in 2007 reveals that China’s household is heavily vested in Property as their single biggest investment. According to the estimate, property accounts for more than 50% of an average Chinese household’s asset. Such a ratio is significantly higher than that of US (below 40%), Japan (below 40%) and Canada (around 20%). The second largest portion of Chinese household’s asset class is Cash, which probably explains why China’s saving rate is the highest in the world. In comparison, the portion of equity, Pension and Bonds account for less than 15% in total for Chinese household’s asset. Relatively speaking, Canadians invest most in equity and Americans invest most in bonds.

In addition, China household’s Asset to GDP ratio is the lowest among the big countries, only at around 2:1 to GDP. Such a ratio is significantly lower than that of the advanced countries, which normally reaches a level of 4 to 5 in terms of household asset to GDP. Such a ratio might partially explain the low consumption of China’s GDP components.

一项横向比较研究发现，中国家庭资产主要有房子和现金组成，分别占到家庭总资产的55%和25%左右。也就是说这两样加起来，就基本构成了绝大多数中国家庭的资产总值。中国的房地产价值在家庭总值中的比例在国际上也属于高位，同时现金的持有量仅次于日本，高于美国和加拿大。