Expect more table-thumping at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on the need to eliminate global imbalances – and more casual dismissals of the Chinese consumer. With all those off-balance sheet liabilities in pensions, healthcare and education, the argument goes, don’t expect the average Lao Bai Xingto substitute for Joe Sixpack of Des Moines.

Perhaps not. But China’s under-consumption is too often overstated. During the past 30 years, personal spending has accounted for just under 60 per cent of China’s aggregate growth in gross domestic product. Recently spending has accelerated: between 2006 and 2008 consumption grew at more than 8 per cent a year – Asia’s highest rate. Relative to America’s $10,000bn consumption, China’s is still small at $1,600bn, or 41 per cent of GDP. But consider the trend. China’s incremental consumption of tradable goods last year, at about $275bn, was nine times as great as the US’s.