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Reuters Published December 23, 2024 Reading time
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Chinese media hail consumption boost even as caution spurs rentals, not buying

By
Reuters Published
December 23, 2024

China's domestic demand is gathering pace as cautious consumers increasingly choose to rent items from cameras to handbags rather than buying them, the official People's Daily said, though government data tell a different story.

The rise of the "rent, not buy" model has injected new impetus into the world's second-largest economy, the paper said in an upbeat commentary on Monday, flagging a trend that provides businesses with a "new perspective".

As China's domestic demand weakened this year, reluctance to spend has fed a boom in rentals, with internet platforms letting consumers hire a drone, for example, at 1 yuan (14 cents) a day, versus a typical cost of more than CHY5,000 ($685).