Businessweek reports:

Isn't China in the grip of a consumer frenzy? Well, sort of. Car sales shot up 30% last year, while retailers from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ) to Carrefour are doing a brisk business as newly prosperous mainlanders stock their larders and living rooms. And not a day goes by without some big-name American company announcing a new China push. On Apr. 16, for instance, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ )unveiled an energy- efficient computer aimed at the China market.

But look beyond the headlines and you'll find that China's 1.3 billion people are actually buying relatively little. Although the mainland's population is four times that of the U.S., Chinese consumers last year spent just 12% of what Americans did, figures investment bank UBS (UBS ). And private consumption as a share of gross domestic product in China is falling, to less than 40% today from about 48% in 2000.

To read more:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_18/b4032044.htm?chan=globalbiz_asia_today%27s+top+story