Chinese buy nearly half of world's luxury goods

Chinese people bought 47 percent of world's total luxury goods in 2013, according to statistics released by Fortune Character Institute.

They bought 102 billion U.S. dollar worth of luxury goods, with some 28 billion in the domestic market and some 74 billion in the overseas market.

Despite the European debt crisis and Chinese government's austerity campaign, the global luxury goods markets still saw an 11 percent annual growth in 2013, with the volume exceeding a record-breaking 217 billion dollars.

Currently, nearly all luxury brands have expanded to China. Even the outlets of luxury brands out of China would hire Mandarin-speaking staff, to provide better service to Chinese consumers.

However, compared to the annual complex growth rate of 27 percent for foreign luxury brands in China from 2008 to 2012, the growth rate in 2013, which is only around 3 percent, looks discouraging.

Statistics released by Bain & Company show that, the number of newly-opening outlets of luxury brands in China dropped from around 150 in 2012 to around 100 in 2013.

"For foreign luxury brands, the age of excessive profit is gone," said Zhou Ting, Director of FCI. "The market is pushing luxury brands to return to a reasonable price range."