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A\nrise in men\u2019s underwear sales might be part of the signal that the Liaoning\nProvince in northeast China\u2019s is on the path to recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The economic growth of Liaoning Province was 4.2 percent in 2017 and 5.6 percent in 2018. At the same time, according to a report released by JD Big Data Research Institute<\/a>, part of one of China\u2019s biggest online shopping sites, sales of men\u2019s underwear in Liaoning rose 42 percent in 2017 over the previous year and went to another 32 percent in 2018. The rate of increase in underwear sales in Liaoning was greater than in any other province. An analysis of consumption also shows that Liaoning\u2019s consumers pay more attention to the quality and color variety of clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The recovery is mainly due to coal and steel prices rising during the period, and the recovery can also be seen in the volume of railway and road freight, electricity consumption of industry, volume of business and employment,” said Liang Qidong, vice president of the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, on a Global Times report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liang\nalso addressed that the Men’s Underwear Index and similar indexes like \u201cyogurt\nindex\u201d and \u201cbread index\u201d could be taken as an economic indicator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Liang\nwas not the first person to come up with the concept. Back in the 1970s, Alan\nGreenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, first introduced and\npopularized the Underwear Index. Greenspan found that there was a close\nconnection between the economy\u2019s performance and the sales of men\u2019s underwear.\nDeclines in the sales indicate a weak economy, while upswings predict a\nrecovery in the economy. Behind the theory, a basic assumption is that men\u2019s\nunderwear is a necessity instead of a luxury item, so sales of men\u2019s underwear\nwill keep relatively stable except in times of a sluggish economy. Therefore, men\u2019s\npurchasing habits for underwear is thought to be an effective economic\nindicator that can detect the beginning of a recovery during an economic\ndownturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sales of men\u2019s underwear dropped in an economic recession in the United States. Data show a 2.3 percent drop in sales of entire men\u2019s underwear products in 2009, according to Mintel, a London-based market research firm. While as the economy recovers, sales of men\u2019s underwear in the United States have risen. As reported by Quartz<\/a>, U.S. underwear sales grew by nearly $1.1 billion between 2009 and 2015, after falling in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Hanes, a popular lingerie brand, has seen a similar trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you look at sales of male underpants it\u2019s just pretty much a flat line, it hardly ever changes,\u201d economist Robert Krulwich told HuffPost<\/a> in an article after the publishing of Greenspan\u2019s book, \u201cThe Age Of Turbulence.\u201d \u201cBut on those few occasions where it dips that means that men are so pinched that they are deciding not to replace underpants. And [Greenspan] said \u2018that is almost always a prescient, forward impression that here comes trouble.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2019\/09\/Underwear-index.png\")
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