With China's official headline GDP number printing at decade lows, the positive spin on the increasingly negative data out of China has been that this is all a part of China's transition from an export-oriented to a consumption economy. However, there is a problem with this narrative: malls and shopping centers in China have been, and remain, increasingly empty suggesting that the narrative of the  resurgent Chinese consumer - especially in the aftermath of the biggest stock market bubble burst since 2008 - is greatly exaggerated.

Case in point: Reuters asks this morning "why are malls closing if consumption is rising?"

Specifically, it looks at the Di Mei shopping center in downtown Shanghai which it finds "a surprisingly depressing place to shop."

The underground mall is located in one of the most shopping-mad cities in China, and yet it is run down and starved of customers."

"Sometimes I cannot sell even one dress in a day," said dress shop owner Ms Xu, who rents a space in Di Mei.

Rising vacancy rates and plummeting rents are increasingly common in Chinese malls and department stores, despite official data showing a sharp rebound in retail sales that helped the world's second-largest economy beat expectations in the third quarter.