MacroBusiness
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While much of the world was under stay-at-home orders on the first day of 2021, Chinese moviegoers packed into cinemas to watch the romantic comedy Warm Hug and the drama A Little Red Flower, generating the country’s biggest New Year’s box office on record. The 545 million-yuan ($84 million) splashed out on movie tickets was the latest sign that household spending in China is above pre-pandemic levels, mainly thanks to the country’s effective suppression of the coronavirus’s spread.
That’s good news for China’s economy, as consumption has accounted for the bulk of growth in recent years, and for companies such as Nike Inc., which reported its China sales soared 24%, to $2.3 billion, in the most recent quarter—the first time they’ve topped $2 billion.