BEIJING, Oct 21, 2009 (AFP) - Sales of luxury goods in China are forecast to rise 12 percent this year, a global consulting firm said Wednesday 21 October, bucking the downward trend seen in other major markets hit hard by the financial crisis.

Photo: AFP

Global sales of high-end products are expected to drop eight percent overall in 2009 to 153 billion euros (229 billion dollars), according to a study by Bain & Company emailed to AFP.

The United States and Japan, two of the world's largest markets for luxury goods, are due to see sales fall by 16 percent and 10 percent respectively, the report said.

But China will experience the opposite trend, the firm said, with research showing that 15 percent of an estimated 300 luxury store openings worldwide this year took place in the Asian giant.

"Aspirational luxury shoppers in Asia and other emerging markets are fuelling sales growth in 2009," Claudia D'Arpizio, a Milan-based partner at Bain, was quoted as saying in the study.

"They remain bullish on brands," she said.

The report added sales growth in China along with South and Central Asia "may cause Asia to overtake Europe and the Americas as the largest global luxury market region."

According to the state-run Beijing News, China has already overtaken the United States as the world's second largest consumer of luxury goods after Japan.

China is forecast to become the world's top buyer of luxury goods by 2015, consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has said in research published on its website.