BEIJINGHONG KONG, Sept 11 Reuters Amy Zhang used to buy branded fashion from shopping malls, but China39;s economic uncertainty has driven the 35yearold teacher, and other middleclass Chinese like her, to shop at one of Beijing39;s most famous wholesale markets.

Daliushu Guanxin, a sprawling compound of thousands of stalls selling everything from clothes to shoes to accessories, is usually frequented by tourists, students, rural migrants and retirees looking for cheap goods.

Now, many more shoppers who can afford to spend more have joined the bargainhunters, underscoring the weakness in household demand which has emerged as a key drag on the world39;s secondlargest economy.

I used to love buying branded clothes, said teacher Zhang as she sifted through a pile of garments priced between 15 and 50 yuan 27. But some of my friends are worried about losing their jobs and that affects me as well.

With wages and pensions hardly budging and the job market highly uncertain as more than one in five young Chinese remain unemployed, households39; confidence and spending power are low in the barely growing economy.

Consumer prices rose just 0.1 yearonyear in August, in sharp contrast with the surging inflation most other major economies have seen since the COVID19 pandemic ended.

It39;s really a confidence issue, but the problem is that there39;s no particularly good way to resolve that right now, said Becky Liu, head of China macro strategy at Standard Chartered.

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