Mason,
-you wrote-
"I can't believe how inexpensive men's suits have gotten. And the money I save goes into the market."
Funny you should mention this about men's suits. Maybe the answer can be found here ...
[SNIP]
"Consider: The rest of Asia has had a massive economic collapse. Yet the Chinese are claiming that they will be able to achieve 8 percent growth in 1998, just as they had before. That seems to be an impossible feat. Now, all Chinese economic statistics are to be taken with a grain of salt, but we believe that China will achieve 8 percent growth in production in 1998. The reason can be found in an example cited by China's Xinhua News Agency on May 25. Xinhua reported: "Despite growing demand for nice suit from the nouveaux riches men, the domestic supply of suit has far outstripped the market demand, today's China Daily quoted the China National Garment Association as saying. According to Chen Ling, an association official, China last year turned out more than 10 billion suits, half of which were exported, but only 13 million suits were sold in domestic market. As more and more suits are stockpiled in the warehouses, production costs of many enterprises are growing rapidly, which has led to the rising price of suits, she pointed out."
In other words, the Chinese have FIVE BILLION suits sitting in their warehouses, priced beyond the reach of the Chinese market."[SNIP]
stratfor.com
I guess that you can send your thank you note to one of the PRC state planning commissions. -g-
Craig |
