BEIJING: The growing spending power of Chinese consumers, combined with government policies to support shopping, tourism and cultural events during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday, will definitely contribute to sustaining China’s economic growth this year, according to government officials and market analysts.
They said that the Spring Festival holiday, from Feb 10 to Saturday, is anticipated to be an unprecedented peak season for consumption, setting a vibrant tone for the Year of the Dragon.
Bolstered by a string of blockbuster films, Chinese cinemas, between Feb 10 and Thursday, had grossed more than 7 billion yuan ($973 million), according to the movie information live tracker Beacon. In addition, major tourist sites across China had received 123 million tourist trips since the start of the 2024 Spring Festival travel rush, representing a 22.8 percent increase compared with the previous year, China Media Group reported on Tuesday. The strong start is expected to lay a solid foundation for economic growth in 2024, despite emerging challenges such as an aging population and reduced external demand.
Wu Fuxiang, director of the department of industrial economics at Nanjing University in Jiangsu province, said that consumption reflects economic growth, and the robust consumer spending during the Spring Festival holiday points to the ongoing improvement of the Chinese economy.
The uptick in consumption is expected to contribute to China’s GDP growth in the first quarter, and will directly benefit related sectors such as retail, logistics, tourism and manufacturing, said Nie Pingxiang, a researcher at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
Nie said that the expansion of these industries will, in turn, stimulate the growth of other sectors, creating a positive feedback loop along the industrial chain.
With electric cars becoming more popular among consumers in rural China, and an increasing number of people opting to travel to domestic as well as international destinations for cultural, artistic and sports tours, new types of consumption have flourished in China in recent years, becoming key drivers of consumption growth, said Sheng Qiuping, vice-minister of commerce.
These new types of consumption are empowered by digital technologies and represent green and healthy choices, Sheng said. He added that the government will introduce a raft of measures this year, such as stimulating the purchases of vehicles and household appliances, to boost consumption. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
