And thanks to an escalating taste for diamonds among the middle class in China and India, prices have soared.
The middle class in China also suffers from high housing costs.
Within a generation, the middle class in China will be roughly four times the size of the American middle class population, according to the UN Population Division and Goldman Sachs.
FORBES: Within A Generation, China Middle Class Four Times Larger Than America's
Over the last decade, the exploding middle class in China has changed the fate of the shark.
The rising middle class in China is different from that in the U.S., but they each have their version of quality of life and aspirations for the future of their children.
Prime Minister David Cameron has urged attractions in the UK to work hard to encourage foreign tourists to visit, particularly the growing middle class in China.
So Chung is betting on multinationals that can capitalize on the growing middle class in China, companies like Coach and Nike.
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Drinking and eating out at Starbucks is considered cool and caters to the aspirational desires of the upper middle class in China.
The emergent middle class in China is rapidly driving up demand for ivory trinkets of various kind, which in turn is increasing poaching throughout Asia and Africa, in some cases even in supposedly protected areas.
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One source of new revenue is the growing middle class in India, China and other emerging markets.
When I started to write my book The Chinese Dream three years ago, people in the United States did not even believe there was a middle class in China.
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"The biggest risk in the world is China's middle class not being happy, " said Shaun Rein, the managing director of China Market Research, a consulting firm.
In 2006, McKinsey predicted that the by 2025, the Chinese middle class would reach 612 million and China would become the third largest consumer market in the world after the U.S. and Japan.
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The biggest theme for 2013 will be the transition from quantity to quality in China, pushing up incomes and the middle class.
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In some ways, middle-class status in China doesn't confer the same privileges as in the West.
Rising housing costs in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou have exacerbated the problem of rising inequality in China, as the major city centers become unaffordable to many middle class and lower-middle class Chinese.
Even in China, where the new middle class is rushing to buy every gadget imaginable, sales of TVs fell.
"For fast-moving, everyday consumer goods, there are some broad megatrends that will continue to push demand forward, which are ongoing urbanization in China and then, of course, the related growth of the middle class, " Hein Schumacher, the China chief for food maker H.
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In China, the rise of the middle class is shifting the economy more towards consumption.
Even the hopes of achieving middle class consumption levels are a real struggle in China.
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In China, the disposable income of middle-class families is more likely to be spent on education than leisure or entertainment.
By the end of this decade, there will be a billion middle-class consumers in China and India.
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In China, the brand has positioned itself as a destination for the upper middle class, where the consumers can get a high quality coffee experience.
Now the economy has entered an adolescent phase, analysts say, with a burgeoning middle class that's spending more domestically -- making China the world's number market in everything from beer sales to car purchases.
Slowed tech spending in the U.S. prompted computer companies to create products that would entice emergent middle class consumers in developing markets like China and India.
Unlike the manufacturing industry in the West that gave birth to a middle class of both white-collar and blue-collar workers, manufacturers in China mostly absorb surplus labor from rural areas with few skills.
Not surprisingly, China leads the way, thanks to a growing Internet-connected middle class, more trust in online shopping, government campaigns to promote consumerism, improved infrastructure, and better product selection and services offered by online sellers and retailers, says eMarketer.
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By 2030, China should have approximately 1.4 billion middle class consumers compared to 365 million in the U.S. and 414 million in Western Europe.
FORBES: Within A Generation, China Middle Class Four Times Larger Than America's
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