China's consumption share of GDP has been chronically undercounted if we compare the actual quantities of goods/services Chinese households consume vs. other countries, you can see the below chart illustrates this:
The first two rows above the black line (GDP per capita and Final Consumption Per Capita) are the PPP adjusted GDP and Final Consumption per capita (FCPC) ratios of China vs other countries. You can see that even for a similarly developed economy, like Mexico, it's implied from the FCPC that Chinese households consume only 50% the amount vs. Mexican households, but basically every category of good has Chinese households consuming > the 50% ratio (e.g. Chinese people consume about the same calories, 80% of the apparel, own more homes and have a similar number of years of schooling compared to Mexicans).
Also, the yellow highlighted cells are areas where the gap in the consumption ratio is smaller than the gap in GDP per capita. You can see there are way more yellow highlighted cells, indicating that GDP per capita chronically undervalues Chinese consumption and can't accurately reflect the amount of stuff Chinese people actually consume vs other countries. Note that this chart doesn't compare many non-tradeable services (like healthcare) so there could even be more severe undervaluing of consumption when it comes to services.
link to the source of the chart: .
