Consumer sentiment across the key emerging markets of China, Southeast Asia and Latin America has been unable to withstand the impact of the Chinese economic slowdown, writes David Wilder of FT Confidential Research.

In China itself, hopes that consumer activity would hold up as old economic drivers slowed down have faded: there is evidence that growing uncertainty about the country’s financial future is crimping household spending. A stock market crash, a depreciating currency and a sharp economic slowdown have driven Chinese consumer sentiment to record lows in the past few months.

The fortunes of the emerging markets — and the global economy as a whole — are inextricably linked to Chinese demand and, as China has slowed, so consumer sentiment in many countries in these regions has suffered.