作者： bankr

Former chairman of Hengfeng Bank imprisoned for siphoning off millions through corruption and embezzlement

A court in eastern China has handed down a suspended death sentence to a corrupt former chairman of a troubled regional lender, indicating Beijing’s determination to clamp down on banking risks.
The Yantai Intermediate People’s Court in Shandong province handed down a death sentence with a two-year reprieve to Jiang Xiyun, chairman of Hengfeng Bank from 2008 to 2013, for embezzling 754 million yuan (US$107 million) in the bank’s shares, taking 60 million yuan in bribes, illegally guaranteeing 3.7 billion yuan in credit, and destroying accounts and records related to 660 million yuan, according to a court ruling published on Thursday.
Suspended death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison in return for good behaviour during the reprieve period. However Jiang, 70, is unlikely to leave prison, with the court saying he would not be granted any further reduction in jail term or parole if the sentence was commuted.
The ruling shed fresh light on lender’s operations under Jiang and his successor Cai Guohua, which ended this year with one of the most spectacular bank failures in China.
The bank has not published financial statements since 2016 and last week received a state-led bailout of US$14 billion.
Cai has been the subject of a disciplinary investigation since late 2017 and is facing charges of taking bribes and misusing funds. According to financial magazine Caixin, Cai allegedly attempted to misuse billions of the bank’s funds and financed his lavish personal lifestyle with bank money, spending roughly 400,000 yuan per day.
The sentence imposed on Jiang is unusually harsh but not without precedent.
In December last year, Yang Chenglin, former chairman of Bank of Inner Mongolia, was given the same sentence for taking over 300 million yuan in bribes. And suspended death sentences were handed to both Liu Jinbao, the former chief executive of Bank of China Hong Kong, in 2005 for embezzlement, and Wang Yi, the former deputy governor of China Development Bank, in 2010, also for embezzlement.
Hengfeng Bank was founded in 1987 as a pioneering home savings bank. It became a joint-stock bank with a business licence to operate nationwide in 2003. Singaporean lender United Overseas Bank bought 15 per cent of the lender for US$115 million in 2008, and its stake is expected to be diluted to about 3 per cent after the bailout this week.
The bank now has 306 sub-branches across the country and it is the third lender to be bailed out by the state since May.
In May, serious credit risks forced the central government to take over Baoshang Bank in Inner Mongolia, the country’s first bank failure in more than 20 years. A few weeks later, Bank of Jinzhou, based in China’s rust-belt province of Liaoning, was bailed out by China’s biggest lender, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and China’s top state-owned asset management firms.
The former chairman of Jinzhou Bank, Zhang Wei, died of cancer earlier this month. Caixin reported that Zhang tried to flee China for the United States in July 2019 but he was stopped by the police.
Many banking institutions are struggling to repay debts and facing great pressure to attract new deposits amid the slowest economic growth in nearly three decades, raising concerns about the weak links in China’s banking system, particularly city commercial and rural banks.

• Workers in the three Asian cities spend longer in the office, take fewer holidays and have some of the worst work-life balance in the world
• This workaholic culture sits in stark contrast to cities in Northern Europe, where vacations are long and the average working week is much shorter

A typical working day for Singaporean office worker Shamir Osman lasts about nine and a half hours, so packed full of meetings and calls that he sometimes does not even get a chance to eat.

The 39-year-old public relations manager’s hectic schedule is far from unusual in the city state, where the average working week lasts just shy of 45 hours – the second longest in the Asia-Pacific, according to a study of 40 cities done by office access control systems provider Kisi.

The report, released in August, looked at the length of workers’ commutes, their arrival time at work, the number of hours they worked per week and the amount of leave taken to determine the hardest-working cities in the world – with three of the top five being in Asia.Japanese megacity Tokyo took the top spot, with Singapore coming in second, followed by the US capital of Washington, Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur – which had the longest average working week at 46 hours – and then Houston in Texas.

At the other end of the scale, the cities judged to have the best work-life balance were all in Northern Europe: Helsinki in Finland first, followed by Germany’s Munich, Norway’s Oslo – which had the shortest working week at just under 39 hours on average – then Hamburg in Germany and Sweden’s Stockholm.For Osman, who has not been on holiday since a weeklong trip to Yogyakarta in October, the almost 30 days of leave that an average worker in Munich takes each year might seem excessive, especially as the Singaporean average is just 14 days – but even this amount of time is a luxury compared to the fewer than 10 days per year that the average employee in Tokyo takes off work.

This workaholic culture is something to which merchandiser Betty Ho – a former employee of a Japanese firm in Singapore – can fully attest.
“You cannot be late, there are a lot of meetings, your desk has to be neat and organised, the boss is always right and you cannot leave the office before him,” said the 41-year-old.
Earlier this year, the excessive hours some tech companies in China expect their employees to work hit the headlines, after a post on global code-sharing and collaboration platform Github triggered a wider backlash against the so-called 996 system – which stands for working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
The complaints spiralled into a broader debate on productivity and work-life balance in the country, with tech tycoon Jack Ma, founder of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba, saying that he saw the 996 schedule as a “huge blessing that many companies and employees do not have the opportunity to have”.
“If you do not do 996 when you are young, when will you? Do you think never having to work 996 in your life is an honour to boast about?” he said at an internal Alibaba event in April, according to a transcript published on the company’s official WeChat account.

谈到澳大利亚经济，许多人都想忘记今年。

• 2020年展望不怎么看好
• 2020年经济增长的预期比2019年好
• 当前的减税和降息不足以刺激家庭消费
• 2020年现金利率将可能停在0.25%
• 明年澳大利亚经济衰退的可能性很微小
• 澳元波动不会太大
• 最大的潜在惊喜是事情进展得比预期的快

经济增长放缓。这是因为家庭把减税和利率下调所带来的额外收入用来增加储蓄及偿还债务，而没能花出去。

失业率居高不下，高于澳联储最新设定的4.5%的“充分就业”目标，而这一目标是刺激工资增长所必需的。目前，工资增长仍处于低迷状态，并朝着错误的方向执意前行。

尽管经济学家和澳大利亚央行（澳联储）呼吁用增加基础建设支出，或减税幅度更大的形式进一步进行财政刺激，但澳大利亚联邦政府却坚持己见，表示，虽然财政盈余的规模小于最初的预测，但还是将在本财年结束时实现首个财政盈余，

所有这一切将让澳大利亚经济在2020年何去何从呢？11位经济学家发表了他们的观点。

一句话展望2020年经济

简而言之：不怎么看好

展望下2020年，接受问卷调查的经济学家们并不很乐观。

“澳大利亚的经济将难以获得动力，”资本经济公司（Capital Economics.）的马塞尔·提里安特（Marcel Thieliant）说。

“2020年比2019年稍微好一点，但没有什么可以欢庆的，”联邦银行高级经济学家加雷斯·艾尔德（Gareth Aird）说。

当被要求对经济前景做一个简短的总结时，问卷调查的答案大多主题相同，只是略有变化。

德勤进入经济（Deloitte Access Economics）咨询公司的尼基·亨特利（Nicki Hutley）说：“澳大利亚经济带着严重的流感步入2020年，它需要澳大利亚央行和财政政策给予一些关注”

大多数人认为，这种关爱与照护应该以增加财政刺激的形式进行。到2020年中，货币政策已起到了很大的提振作用。而澳联储至少还会再下调一次官方利率。

随着房地产市场转好，其他经济学家稍微感到一丝乐观。其中，就包括澳交所上市公司，房地产服务商REA集团的首席经济学家内里达·科尼斯比（Nerida Conisbee）。

“澳大利亚经济正在缓慢复苏，但仍存在问题……与今年相比，2020年的形势会好得多，”她说。

对经济增长的预期

简而言之：比2019年要好，但低于潜力所在

对澳大利亚2020年经济增长的预测从最低点的2%到最高点的2.75%不尽相同。

投资管理公司IFM 投资者（IFM Investors）的首席经济学家亚历克斯·乔伊纳（Alex Joiner）说：“我预计经济增长率将在2.25%至2.5%左右，尤其是在政府没有实行任何进一步实质性刺激的情况下”。

摩根大通（JP Morgan）的高级经济学家本·贾曼（Ben Jarman）预测，澳大利亚经济将强劲地复苏，国内生产总值增长率将达到2.75%左右，但他也表示，这不足以抵消今年经济放缓后的闲置产能。

联邦政府也有着同样的预测：到2021年中，下一个财政年度，经济增长率会达到2.75%。

The Reserve Bank’s forecasts are even more optimistic, with 2.75 per cent growth forecast over 2020, lifting to 3 per cent in 2021.

澳联储的预测甚至更加乐观，预计2020年澳大利亚经济将增长2.75%，2021年将升至3%。

“我们对澳大利亚央行乐观的增长和通胀预测表示怀疑，并认为澳大利亚的国内生产总值增长在2020/21年期间仍会受限在2%左右，”AMP资本（AMP Capital ）高级经济学家戴安娜·穆西纳(Diana Mousina)表示。

“闲置产能仍将是一个问题，这将让通胀和工资增长保持低位。”

在12月份的董事会会议记录中，澳联储开始降低对当前前景的展望。

该会议纪要写道：“董事会成员们一致认为，在2020年2月重新评估经济前景非常重要，届时澳联储将准备更新最新预测”。

当前的减税和降息足以提振家庭现状吗？

简而言之：也许不行

“这是2020年一个关键性的问题，”BIS牛津经济（BIS Oxford Economics）咨询公司首席经济学家萨拉·亨特（Sarah Hunter）说。

对澳联储和政府来说，令人不快的消息是，零售开销和家庭消费数据显示，人们选择将降息和退税带来的额外现金用来偿还债务或增加储蓄了。

• Women of wealth often seen at haute couture shows or rubbing shoulders with royalty, they tell us about their online ventures and giving back to society
• A doctor earned her stripes doing 40-hour hospital shifts before opening a clinic, a former Miss Universe funds students, a Thai actress works with the UNHCR

From a US couture client who used to live in Hong Kong to the Thai Angelina Jolie and a “rich kid of Beverly Hills”, these fabulous women from Asia and beyond lead very fashionable lives.

1. Susan Casden, Los Angeles
   Casden fell in love with couture in Paris nearly 20 years ago and has since built a collection even New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has interest in. She lived in Hong Kong from 1978 to 1994, and was married to Tony Fung, scion of Hong Kong financial services firm Sun Hung Kai & Co.
2. Jamie Chua, Singapore
   A Singapore Airlines stewardess when she met her future husband, Indonesian tycoon Nurdian Cuaca, the 45-year-old is done with just spending money. Paid to endorse products to her social media followers, her investments include a beauty clinic and skincare range. Everybody should have work, she says.
3. Bui Simon, Los Angeles
   Porntip Bui Simon was crowned Miss Universe in 1988 and knew she had to use the platform it provided her to do more than promote beauty products and bathing suits. Her Angels Wings Foundation provides scholarships for Thai students in both the US and her native Thailand, where it also supports children.
4. Dorothy Wang, Los Angeles
   The Rich Kids of Beverly Hills star says four seasons of the show wore her out, but does not rule out another reality show if the format is right. Meantime, she has been enjoying her stress-free life, collaborating with a beauty brand and working on a travel and food website.
5. Christine Chiu, Los Angeles
   Christine Chiu felt like a “kid in a candy store” at her first haute couture show. The experience ignited her love for custom-made clothes and the art behind their creation. Chiu is passionate about giving and recently was invited to Scotland by Prince Charles to open a new health and wellness centre in her name.
6. Praya Lundberg, Bangkok
   The Thai actress and model grew up in the spotlight as a child actor and her fame made her able to see the inequities in her homeland. In 2017, she was named Thailand’s first Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
7. Angela Lee, Hong Kong
   Look at Lee’s Instagram account and it’s all Hermès Birkins and Kellys, Van Cleef & Arpels jewels, and Patek Philippe watches. But she is a doctor with stints in Britain’s health service and 40-hour Hong Kong hospital shifts recently behind her, who’s lately opened a skincare clinic.

21世纪的第二个十年(2010-2019)，始于金融危机，收尾于金融科技革命，是一个颠覆性的十年。从负借贷成本到比特币，以下是过去十年中颠覆传统经济和投资模式的十大趋势：

1/FAANG五巨头

如果它们组成一个国家，按经济产出计算将超过英国，紧跟德国之后成为全球第五大经济体。科技巨头Facebook、亚马逊、苹果、网飞和谷歌母公司Alphabet被统称为“FAANG”，其总市值已从2010年1月的大约1,000亿美元飙升至3.9万亿美元，不仅担当了股票历史最长牛市的先锋，同时还改变了人们工作、购物、信息交流和休闲的方式。

FAANG族股票在MSCI明晟全球股票指数中的权重已从2010年初的约1.6%升至7%。如果有精明的投资者在2009年投资25,000美元买入网飞股票，到现在会升值到100万美元。

在这五大先锋的带动下，其他科技巨头也在崛起，从中国的BAT，即百度、阿里巴巴和腾讯，到行业“破坏者”优步、爱彼迎(Airbnb)和Deliveroo。无论好与坏，反正全球以及所有市场都已经发生永久性改变。

2/借款成本下降

2008-2009年经济危机后的这些年，一个典型特点是利率大跌和政府借款成本低于零，可能是历史上首次。美国和德国10年期借款成本在这十年中下降了200-400个基点；后者降至负0.7%。收益率为负的债券大约有12万亿美元，占所有流通债券的近四分之一。

央行购买资产、负利率、收益率曲线操纵和科技革命的通缩效应，这些驱动因素本身是具有开创性的，至少从规模上是这样。日本央行持有的资产规模累计已经超过日本经济的规模。欧洲央行的资产负债表相当于欧元区年产出的四分之一，但已经是10年前的两倍。

3/世纪债券

在利率处于纪录低位和投资者渴求收益率之际，期限长于人均寿命的债券受到青睐。

2010年，期限达到100年的债券很少，但墨西哥发行的10亿美元2110年到期债券开启了发债热潮，美国和英国的大学、爱尔兰、比利时和奥地利、美国的地方政府、可口可乐和巴西国家石油公司(Petrobras)等企业均发行世纪债券。就连垃圾评级、连续违约的阿根廷发行的2117年到期债券也吸引到庞大需求。

路孚特数据显示，目前流通的世纪债券略高于1,400种，价值接近1,700亿美元。

但…买者自慎。阿根廷世纪债券的价值已跌去一半。但同样是在2017年发行的奥地利世纪债券却上涨了逾60%。

4/比特币一飞冲天

2010年，比特币还只是一个在小众在线论坛上引起波澜的想法。十年后，加密货币已与金融、商业和政治交织在一起。

在2010年尚不存在的加密货币市场现在价值超过2,000亿美元，在比特币泡沫最严重时期甚至达到8,150亿美元。比特币首次公开交易时仅为3美分，但现在已涨至逾7,500美元。比特币最高曾接近20,000美元，充分体现了其波动性。比特币的使用也更为广泛。据Coin Metrics估计，十年前有130个活跃的比特币用户，而现在有近75万个。

虚拟货币在2010年代有着多重的样貌，从叛逆的技术到罪犯的工具，从投机的代名词再变成便利支付的无穷希望。尽管始终无法摆脱外界对其安全性的疑虑，但虚拟货币和区块链技术仍以令人头晕眼花的速度推进，经典的例子就是近期Facebook推动的Libra币，以及多家央行打算创造自家的数字货币。

5/被动出击

有的时候采取被动策略是比较好的做法。过去10年通过追踪标普500指数的上市交易基金(ETF)来搭上股市热潮的投资人，能够赚取的报酬率达200%，但付出的费用远低于共同基金经理的收费。

因此，ETF行业出现亮丽的增长，根据顾问机构ETFGI的数据，ETF行业管理的资产规模从2010年的不到2万亿(兆)美元扩增至近7万亿美元。较低的收费料将协助ETF行业的蓬勃发展。美国银行预估，ETF管理的总体资产可能在2030年达到50万亿美元。

6/投资气候

(根据联合国世界气象组织)的统计，过去四年是有记录以来最热的四年，气候问题正在让投资者以一种不同于10年前的方式来思考问题。

作物歉收、洪涝和山火都会造成投资亏损。越来越多的基金减少在污染行业的投资，转而追捧可再生能源、水资源保护技术，或者投资像人造肉公司这样的企业。人造肉公司Beyond Meat在2019年的首次公开发行(IPO)受到华尔街的追捧。

据全球可持续投资联盟(Global Sustainable Investment Alliance)估计，目前投资在可持续或者绿色项目中的资金超过30万亿美元，较2011年增加逾一倍。

2007年发行了首批绿色债券，为有环境效益的项目提供资金。今年的发行总规模达到创纪录的2,000亿美元以上。

7/页岩油来势汹汹

学会利用水力压裂技术从页岩中开采石油后，美国已经跃居全球产油国排行榜榜首，日产量达1,250万桶，足足比2010年高出一倍。页岩油产量从2010年时的不到100万桶/日提高到了900万桶/日以上，帮助美国在40年来首度成为石油出口国。

页岩油产量激增，是能源话题从供应高峰转向需求高峰的原因之一。与此同时，人们日益重视环保问题，这意味着发生石油过剩的可能性高于短缺。

8/电动车之梦

全球汽车产业依赖内燃机引擎已经超过一个世纪，如今电动车正在颠覆这一切。电动车制造商特斯拉在2010年挂牌上市，股票发行价是17美元，如今已飙升至380美元。

新一代电动车的开发已吸引到数千亿美元的投资承诺，供应汽车电池的那些行业蓬勃发展，对于主要电池材料锂的需求到2025年可能增加两倍。

电动汽车销售迄今为止令人失望，在总销量中的占比目前仅为2%。汽油及柴油车价格更为便宜，并且电动汽车充电的基础设施有限。

但是，有关气候变化的警告日益加剧且政府鼓励消费者减少使用汽油，意味着电动革命似乎势不可挡。

9/快闪小子，汇市闪崩

科技的变革性力量并没有绕过外汇交易大厅。10年前，交易员为银行和客户处理买卖指令。如今，电子交易占到一些产品的90%，在此期间翻了一番。另一个转变是向“算法”(algos)的转变，即计算机程序遵循预先设定的指令或算法进行交易，其速度通常是人类无法企及的。

10年前，算法交易基本上还不存在，如今，在买方平台路孚特FXall上，算法交易占外汇现货交易量的五分之一。据国际清算银行(BIS)估计，在另一个电子交易平台EBS上，超过80%的指令是由算法驱动的。

由此带来的一个副作用就是“闪崩”–剧烈的汇率波动–变得频繁起来，表面上是因为程序设定市场波动时关闭算法。

赢家是谁？就是那些买得起最复杂算法的人。目前全球汇市交易中，有近半数是与前五大银行往来，规模较小的机构、当然还有交易员们就被迫退场。

10/大麻掀起绿色淘金潮

过去十年之内，大麻从街头角落走进了股票市场。美国第一档纯大麻概念股Tilray于2018年在纳斯达克(Nasdaq)市场挂牌，上市首日跳涨36%。自加拿大让休闲类大麻合法化后的18个月，已经有数百档大麻概念股上市交易。

大麻也衍生出这十年来最为热络的资产泡沫之一。这波涨势被称为是绿色淘金潮，Aurora Cannabis及Canopy Growth等公司的股价在2018年10月创下历史高点时上涨了七倍。当这些股票处于高点时，大麻股的指标Alternative Harvest ETF前十大成分股的总市值达500亿美元。

一年之后，其中的300亿美元烟消云散。这可以归咎于当局管制及超量生产打击大麻价格。这是否为产业成熟化的迹象？股价高点或许已经蒸发，但大麻股也不太可能会有太大发展。伦敦市场可能会是例外，因为2020年将有一连串大麻股在伦敦上市。

日本厚生劳动省12月24日发布的2019年人口动态统计的全年推算显示，日本人的国内出生数量为86.4万人。与上年相比减少5.92％，出现锐减。这是日本自1899年开始统计以来首次低于90万人。出生人数低于死亡人数的人口“自然减少”也达到51.2万人，首次超过50万人，尽管日本政府采取对策，但少子化和人口减少仍在加速。

少子化直接导致社会保障的支撑力量的减少，而且可能引发潜在增长率的低迷。日本需要应对人口减少速度超出预期的事态。

日本国立社会保障与人口问题研究所2017年4月的未来人口推算（按日本人的人口计算）预测称，出生数将在2020年低于90万人，在2021年降至86万人水平，而实际的减少速度提前了2年。超过5％的减少率则是自1989年以来时隔30年首次。

出生人数的锐减有可能是受到很多因素的影响。最主要的是生育期女性的人口减少。日本总务省的统计显示，2019年7月25~39岁的女性为969万人，比上年同月减少约21万人。

还有1971~1974年出生的婴儿潮群体“团块次世代”到2019年达到45岁以上的影响。该研究所的人口动向研究部长岩泽美帆表示，“这一代面临就职冰河期等，在年轻时搁置的生育延后，支撑了最近的出生率”。

2019年曾期待新年号带来的“令和婚”和“令和宝宝”的效果推动生育增加，但事与愿违，结婚数量比上年减少0.59％，仅为58.3万对。

2003年《少子化对策基本法》通过，日本政府一直在推进兼顾工作与育儿、待入园儿童对策、保育费免费化、劳动方式改革和男性参与育儿等举措。合计特殊出生率（1名女性一生中生育的孩子数，即“总和生育率”）以2005年的1.26为谷值，一度出现复苏，但2015年（1.45）之后持续减少，2018年降至1.42。

日本的幼儿（资料图）

日本政府提出的目标是到2025年度，想生孩子的夫妻等的想法全部实现的情况下，实现“希望出生率1.8”，但现状是找不到速效药。

日本政策研究大学院大学名誉教授松谷明彦（宏观经济学）指出，“年轻一代正在减少，而且政府的少子化对策难以取得显著效果。应当转向以人口减少为前提的社会和经济”。

人口动态统计的全年推算根据截至10月的速报值算出，出生人数并不包含外国人在日本生育和日本人在海外生育。据称即使按包括这些情况的总人口计算，2019年的出生数低于90万人的可能性也很高。

• Since Dolce & Gabbana’s chopsticks ad debacle, a string of fashion and luxury players have apologised, and pulled products, after angering web users in China
• Most were accused of not respecting China’s territorial integrity for selling clothing or running websites that suggested Hong Kong and Taiwan were countries

12 months ago Dolce & Gabbana was forced to cancel its first fashion show in Shanghai after an advertising campaign in which a Chinese model struggles to eat Italian food with chopsticks drew widespread accusations of racism.
The Italian fashion house also apologised for leaked messages, allegedly sent by co-founder Stefano Gabbana, that were derogatory about China.
The brand said Gabbana’s account had been hacked, and the label later released a video apology on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform to offer their “sincerest apologies to Chinese people worldwide”.
But the damage was done. Retailers in mainland China and Hong Kong stopped selling its products, and the brand is still struggling to salvage what is a vital market for luxury.
Chinese consumers accounted for at least a third of global spending on luxury products last year, according to Bain & Company, a management consulting company. And this year, China overtook the US as the largest fashion market in the world, according to a recent report by management consultants McKinsey & Company and website The Business of Fashion.
Dolce & Gabbana is not the only luxury label to land in hot water with China, however. Since November 2018 several other international brands have found themselves in trouble for offending internet users in the world’s second largest economy.

In the case of the National Basketball Association (NBA), one ill-judged tweet in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong by the Houston Rockets team general manager Daryl Morey threatened to undermine the sports franchise’s business in China, now worth more than US$4 billion according to Forbes. The NBA’s apology, however, led to a backlash in the United States against its perceived kowtowing to Beijing.
Earlier this month, London-based art and design college Central Saint Martins’ fashion and textiles foundation programme apologised for reposting Instagram stories featuring “racist” student artwork and projects on its official account.
One of the student banners, which critics said resembled the Chinese Qing dynasty flag and braid, had the words “F*** Fast Fashion”, “Made in China” and “£0 worth” on it. Another banner displayed popular Hong Kong protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times”.
Foreign fashion firms doing business in China have also had to offer apologies after coming under fire on Chinese social media for appearing to question China’s territorial sovereignty. Here are eight of those who committed such fashion faux pas.

As millennial consumers age and settle down, Gen Z is undoubtedly the next market gold rush – especially in China – but luxury brands need to up their game in inclusion, diversity, honesty and video content to get ahead

Despite being stereotyped by an apparent resistance to marriage and procreation, most millennials inevitably, eventually, embark upon the adventures of family life. And once they embrace parenthood, their priorities and spending habits change from a focus on frivolities and leisure activities to parenting products and services.
So, the luxury industry’s contingency plan must be to turn its focus toward Generation Z. Both generations remain relevant, but Gen Z is credited with bringing new blood into streetwear culture while helping to modernise classic brands like Gucci and Saint Laurent.

According to Campaign Monitor, “Generation Z is one of the most powerful consumer forces in the market today. Their buying power is US$44 billion and expands to US$600 billion when considering the influence they have on their parents’ spending.”
But despite their incredible potential, marketers remain baffled by this consumer segment. This is somewhat understandable, as Gen Zers have unique traits that make them both appealing and frightening as an audience.

They are indeed the first true digital natives, and this has huge implications and challenges because not every brand is fluent in social media lingo, or up-to-date with the latest technology.

Furthermore, this generation is a result of the strict enforcement of China’s one-child policy. Because of this, Gen Z kids grew up in households free from sibling rivalry and were pampered by older relatives. Some critics argue that this situation has created a generation of “little emperors”; narcissistic and weak-willed children spoiled by parental attention and new-found material comfort. The narcissism tag may be debatable, but we can acknowledge that Generation Z has unique characteristics that impact their consumer behaviour.

Another Gen Z trait is being even more socially conscious than millennials. According to a report by MNI Targeted Media, 56 per cent of Gen Zers “consider themselves to be socially conscious and more than 50 per cent report that knowing a brand is socially conscious influences their purchasing decisions”. Moreover, as the most educated generation in history, Gen Z understands the importance of staying informed, and this knowledge formed their beliefs that brands should adopt socially and environmentally responsible practices.