China's super rich are losing faith in the country's economy, with some even worried it will turn into the next Venezuela

WANG ZHAO / AFP

It's a scary time for China's super wealthy.

• China's super rich are losing their faith in the country's financial future as fears around the impacts of slowing global trade and slowing economic liberalization cause worry.
• Just over a third of China's "super rich" now describe themselves as "very confident" about the future of the Chinese economy. That's less than half the number of two years ago.
• Some rich citizens are even scared that China could end up following the same path as the once prosperous Venezuela, according to the New York Times.

China's super rich are losing their faith in the country's financial future as fears around the impacts of slowing global trade and slowing economic liberalization cause worry.

According to a paper published in January by Hurun Report, a Shanghai-based research firm, just over one-third of the "super rich" Chinese citizens now describe themselves as "very confident" about the future of the Chinese economy.

On the surface, that seems like a solid number, but it is startling when compared to the same survey two years ago, which showed that nearly two-thirds were very confident in China's economic future. It is also the lowest number in the 15 years the survey has been produced, Hurun said.

The same survey from Hurun also showed that the number of wealthy Chinese who have "no confidence at all" in China's economic future has doubled from last year's survey, and now sits at 14%.

Hurun's survey of 465 super rich Chinese citizens also showed that almost half are considering, or are already in the process of, migrating out of China.

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Word of China's wealthy elites losing faith in the future of China's runaway economic success story comes at a time where the country faces a major crossroads, with the ongoing trade dispute with the USA, and a general slowdown in growth.

Chinese economic growth, while still very high by the standards of developed economies, continues to slow. At the end of 2018, it expanded at the slowest year-on-year pace since the height of the Great Recession.

Not only is growth slowing, but many Chinese elites are reportedly fearful that the economic liberalization that helped make China the second largest economy on earth is stuttering under the Xi regime, and that it could eventually lead the country down a troubling economic path.

A New York Times profile on the subject published in February suggested that some rich citizens are even scared that China could end up following the same path as the once prosperous Venezuela.

"Few are predicting a crash, but worries over China's long-term prospects are growing," the Times wrote. "Pessimism is so high, in fact, that some businesspeople are comparing China's potential future to another country where the government seized control of the economy and didn't ease up: Venezuela."

The report did not provide any specific examples of businesspeople on the record making such claims.