Singapore’s consumption to GDP ratio shows no signs of increasing. China and Thailand have shown divergent patterns despite their similar income levels. Overall, a clear rising trend is observed only for Hong Kong. Nonetheless, the consumption-GDP ratio in the NIEs is expected to grow further in the near future, as aging accelerates in the region.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has conducted an interesting analysis on this subject. 8 The study found that the impact of aging on the consumption-GDP ratio (or on the savings-GDP ratio) is smaller (or larger) in Asia than elsewhere. However, it also found that the consumption-GDP ratio tends to increase in Asia when population aging reaches a certain point.