We've had the Economist's Big Mac index for many years now, but statisticians in China from Alibaba's e-commerce portal believe they may have found a link between brassiere sizes and consumption patterns.

A woman's spending power increases with her cup size, Alibaba believes. Its latest data dive shows that 26 per cent of women with E cup sizes figure in Alibaba's higher level of spending power, while only 7 per cent of women with a B cup are included in this demographic.

Women with smaller breasts make up the majority of the low consumption bracket, and no women with B cups were in the “high spending power” category.

Guangdong's Southern Weekly is sceptical. For one, it says, women don't like to buy underwear online, and online spending power does not necessarily equate to one's overall spending power.

Also, women with an E cup breast size may end up shopping online because it is normally difficult to buy bras in that size in shops in China.

A storm in an E cup perhaps?