Prospects for European companies in China

29^th May 2012

On 29th May, the European Chamber of Commerce in China published its 2012 survey on the business climate, which reveals on the part of companies investing in China an impression that the Chinese market is reaching "maturity", with labour costs on the increase. Thus, although 78% of companies say that they are optimistic with regard to the prospects for their operations in China over the next two years, only 36% believe that the profitability of these operations will evolve favourably. Also, 59% say that they are pessimistic with regard to developments in labour costs in the near future. The three main concerns of European companies in China are the economic slowdown (65%), the increase in labour costs (63%) and the world economic slowdown (62%), to which should be added a statutory framework that sometimes leads to "missed opportunities".

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