HONG KONG -- Alibaba Group Holding may have yet again smashed its record for its annual online shopping carnival known as Singles Day, but no one should think this means Chinese consumers are feeling more optimistic than the recent spending slowdown has suggested.
While sales grew 27% to 213.5 billion yuan ($30.7 billion) -- bigger than its U.S. counterparts Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined -- a closer look at the figures shows that Chinese shoppers are refraining from buying valuable items despite big discounts. They remain distinctly gloomy, weighed down by a less than rosy outlook for the economy over the years ahead.
