China’s wealthy are hoarding cash amid an uncertain economy, survey finds

China’s high-net-worth investors prioritised “safety” in 2024 amid a period of economic turbulence, according to a new report, and analysts expect the trend to continue as US President Donald Trump’s tariff war sends shock waves across global markets.

The survey by data and analytics firm GlobalData found that 27 per cent of high-net-worth Chinese investors parked their wealth in low-risk assets like cash, near-cash products and bonds last year, as they waited for the economic storm clouds to blow over.

This cautious stance “opens the door for private wealth managers to guide clients towards undervalued investments”, the company noted.

“The escalation of the trade war with the United States … poses the single most significant threat to the Chinese economy in the near term,” said Poornima Chinta, a banking and payments analyst at GlobalData. “This has had a significant impact on the Chinese investor psyche and led to an overallocation to safe-haven products.”