In Asia, economic growth had stimulated food consumption.

Catalyzing Consumption and Balancing Growth

And consumption growth has been relatively resilient.

A Healthy Path to Chinese Consumption Growth

Trends in economic growth, energy consumption and energy supply in the transition economies vary.

Fourth, private consumption growth in the last few quarters does not reflect growth in real wages (which are actually falling).

Consumption in Russia is supported also by a rapid growth of consumer loans.

Some people may argue that investment growth without consumption growth will result in overcapacity and eventually lead to recession.

What is missing is sufficient private consumption to power endogenous growth.

This implies that consumption growth will remain muted for some time.

The revival of investment has followed the resumption of consumption growth.

Lack of robust credit growth will hamper private consumption and investment spending.

If Asian domestic consumption increases, for example, global economic growth will depend far less on over consumption by debt laden Americans.

But more than higher growth in income from labor will be needed to boost Chinese private consumption.

Fourth, private consumption growth in the last few quarters does not reflect growth in real wages (which are actually falling). Rather, growth in disposable income (and thus in consumption) has been sustained since last year by another 1.4 trillion in tax cuts and extended transfer payments, implying another 1.4 trillion of public debt.

This is not surprising, given the slowdown in consumption growth (car sales, for example, are suffering a prolonged decline).

These groups protected the growth in consumption to which they had become accustomed by going more deeply into debt.

But emerging economy growth is now slowing considerably, including in China, where demand is shifting from investment toward consumption.

Goldman Sachs warned of the growing risks for the key driver of the fragile economic growth in Russia consumption.

The only chance of improvement is to decouple economic growth from energy consumption and emissions.

In 2013, as transfer payments are phased out, however gradually, and as some tax cuts are allowed to expire, disposable income growth and consumption growth will slow.

Higher prices fuel higher growth in these countries, which, accompanied by a population boom, leads to higher domestic energy consumption.

China faces a similar demographic trend, and also a push to unleash household consumption in order to sustain GDP growth.

If Asian domestic consumption increases, for example, global economic growth will depend far less on over consumption by debt laden Americans. This would help all economies.

During the last two decades, consumption drove these countries economic growth, reaching historically high GDP shares.

For two years now, the growth rate of private consumption (measured at constant prices) has been negative 1 in 2002, 0.5 in 2003.

In the case of Germany, one has to go back to the early 1980 s to see similar negative numbers in consumption growth.

Japan s new government, led by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, started discussing a consumption tax hike to offset the growth in spending.

China s upcoming pro consumption rebalancing implies a potential shift in FDI away from manufacturing toward services that could propel growth further.

Its future growth will have to be based more on domestic demand than on exports, which will require increases in consumption.

With investment unlikely to become a motor for the German economy, consumption holds the key to stronger demand growth in Germany.

In addition to weak consumption, the Bank of Russia's strict policy could also be mentioned in terms of other risk factors for economic growth.

But a consumption tax hike is no panacea, particularly given the government s lack of a growth strategy.

Nor has domestic consumption been sufficiently expanded, leaving economic growth overly dependent on exports and foreign investment.

And Japan seems to be intent on inflicting on itself a second, growth retarding consumption tax increase.

Increasingly, Russia s oil surpluses drive economic growth through rising investment, which boosts construction and consumption, in turn benefiting retail trade and finance.

For domestic demand to act as an engine of growth, policies should shift resources from investment to consumption.

Easier credit conditions and lower interest rates are supposed to boost growth by stimulating investment and consumption demand.

But, without new investment in developing Middle East reserves, unbridled growth of energy consumption in the US, China, and elsewhere implies that demand will outpace supply.

It artificially props up consumption growth and allows the government to defer hard choices between taxes and military expenditures.

Consumption growth has been driven largely by Russia s integration into the global economy and cannot be sustained without it.

But if exports continue to grow in the absence of consumption led import growth, distortions occur and the trade surplus and foreign reserves increase.

France has recorded an economic growth of 0,4 in the third quarter, a little better than the expected 0,3 , due to increased household consumption.

In other words, economic growth should be viewed as growth in wealth, not growth in GNP.

Nevertheless, annual GDP grew by 8.7 , thanks to 16.9 growth in consumption (measured by gross sale of consumer goods) and a 33.3 surge in fixed investment demand.