Four months after China's chaotic opening from COVID-zero, conspicuous consumption in China has returned, and the country has continued its long-running love affair with luxury goods. Shares in LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury group, jumped 5.7% on Thursday after the company announced expectations-beating sales growth earlier this week, with notable strength in China. The jump briefly made the company the world's tenth largest and propelled the net worth of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault—who surpassed Elon Musk the world's richest man in 2022—to $210 billion. Yet there may be more happening than just a resumption of pre-pandemic spending patterns.
Youth culture in China is changing its attitudes towards work and personal comfort—such as the social media trend of "lying flat" that emerged over the last several years—and that may end up changing the country's economy in permanent ways.
