Source: People’s Daily Overseas Edition
The State Council Information Office recently held a press conference. Relevant officials from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the State Sports General Administration responded to concerns on topics such as ensuring market supply during the Spring Festival and meeting people’s consumption needs.
Consumption highlights in 2024
“In the past year of 2024, the Ministry of Commerce took the ‘Consumption Promotion Year’ as the main line and took multiple measures to promote the continued expansion of consumption.” Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said.
——Replacing the old with the new has achieved remarkable results. In 2024, more than 6.8 million cars will be traded in for new ones across the country, more than 62.76 million units of trade-in products for eight major categories of home appliances will be sold, about 60 million subsidized home improvement, kitchen and bathroom “refresh” products will be sold, and more than 1.38 million electric bicycles will be traded in for new ones, all of which will drive the sales of related products. The sales exceeded 1.3 trillion yuan, boosting the annual growth rate of total retail sales of consumer goods by 1 percentage point.
——Expansion and upgrade of service consumption. In 2024, service retail sales will increase by 6.2% year-on-year, and per capita service consumption expenditure will account for 46.1% of consumer expenditure, an increase of 0.9 percentage points from the previous year. The number of commercial performances nationwide increased by 10.9%, and box office revenue increased by 15.4%.
——New consumption continues to grow. In 2024, national online retail sales will grow by 7.4%, of which physical online sales will account for 26.8%. According to business big data monitoring, the agricultural product network grew by 15.8%. We will continue to promote green consumption and carry out in-depth efforts to bring new energy vehicles and green smart home appliances to the countryside. In 2024, the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles will exceed 10 million units for the first time, an increase of 40.7%. The retail sales of home appliances by units above designated size exceeded 1 trillion yuan, a record high. Among the eight categories of home appliances traded in for new ones, first-class energy efficiency accounted for more than 90%.
Sufficient supply of daily necessities before the holiday
“According to business big data monitoring, the national daily necessities market is fully supplied and prices are generally stable before the holidays.” Li Gang, director of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in mid-January, 200 large agricultural product wholesale markets across the country had grain, edible oil, Inventories of pork, eggs, vegetables, etc. have increased by varying degrees compared with the end of 2024. On January 23, the average wholesale prices of eggs and beef dropped by 1.5% and 1.1% respectively from the beginning of the month, while the prices of grain, edible oil, pork, and mutton were basically the same as those at the beginning of the month.
Li Gang said that during the holidays, commercial departments at all levels will strengthen emergency duties, pay close attention to the market situation, and continue to ensure the supply of daily necessities.
Strengthen the organization of supply sources, guide local organizations to expand supply channels, strengthen the connection between production and sales, increase the quantity of inventory, increase the frequency of replenishment and put on shelves, and ensure smooth market circulation. Beijing launched the “Third New Year Goods Festival” at the Xinfadi Agricultural Products Market to further expand supply and marketing channels; Shanghai made good use of the affordable vegetable counter mechanism to enrich market supply during the festival.
We should do a good job in reserve adjustment, continue to increase the supply of daily necessities, actively play the role of reserve throughput regulation, guide various localities to coordinate the release of meat and vegetable reserves, and increase holiday market supply. Qingdao, Shandong Province has released 17,000 tons of government meat and vegetable reserves at 121 delivery points in the urban area; Urumqi, Xinjiang, Yinchuan, Ningxia and other places have released affordable vegetables in an orderly manner to increase market supply.
Ensure convenient services for the people, guide commercial and circulation enterprises to operate normally during the holidays, and encourage key supermarkets to appropriately extend their business hours. Sichuan coordinated e-commerce platforms to add riders to ensure delivery during the Spring Festival, and guided 100 major large supermarket chains to operate normally every day during the Spring Festival; Hubei promoted farmers’ markets, supermarket e-commerce, and takeout express companies to “open as much as possible”.
Various forms of consumption during the Chinese New Year
“Recently, the consumer market has a strong New Year flavor, is popular, and has strong consumption.” Li Gang said that at present, time-honored brand carnivals, online New Year goods festivals and other activities have been launched to guide local people to purchase New Year goods, visit relatives and friends, and expand the supply of high-quality goods and services. Meet people’s holiday consumption needs.
There are many highlights in commodity consumption. The supply and demand of the New Year’s goods market are booming, and major supermarkets have held a variety of New Year’s goods promotion activities. Specialty foods, New Year’s customs, seasonal clothing, flowers and other products are favored. The trade-in policy has been expanded, and mobile phones, wearable devices, green smart home appliances and other products are selling like hotcakes.
Catering consumption is vigorous. Bookings for New Year’s Eve dinners are hot, and time-honored traditional delicacies and local specialties have become hot spots for catering consumption. New Year’s Eve dinners at some popular restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan and other places are “hard to get” and “hard to get”. The number of orders for New Year’s Eve dinners on some catering platforms More than doubled year-on-year.
Demand for service consumption is strong. Ice and snow tours, cold escape tours, and cultural and museum tours are very popular, and visiting lantern fairs, temple fairs, and folk performances have become popular choices. Ice and snow tourism in Harbin, Heilongjiang remains popular, with travel orders increasing by more than 30% year-on-year. The person in charge of Dewu APP told reporters that on the Dewu APP platform, the search popularity of the keyword “skiing” surged by more than 90% month-on-month, including ski clothing, ski boots, helmets, glasses, protective gear, gloves, etc. Sales of ski equipment in China have increased significantly.
On January 7, the Lunar New Year Festival, the “2025 National Online New Year’s Goods Festival” was officially launched. According to business big data statistics, since the event has been launched, more than 400 supporting activities have been organized around Spring Festival catering, shopping, entertainment and tourism and other consumer hot spots. Online retail The amount exceeds 700 billion yuan.
“We will work with cultural tourism, sports and other departments to launch various New Year consumption activities to create a prosperous New Year atmosphere.” Li Gang said.
[Editor in charge: Cheng Erfan]
