Consumption market ushers in strong start to the Year of the Snake

Editor's note: Zhou Jianjun is an assistant researcher at the Institute of State System Research and School of Economics, Zhejiang University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN. It has been translated from Chinese and edited for brevity and clarity.

During the 2025 Spring Festival of the Year of the Snake, regions across China launched a host of policies to unleash consumption potential. They issued consumption vouchers for fields such as culture and tourism, retail and dining, and automotive and home appliances to further stimulate holiday economy vitality.

Consumption has become the primary driver of China's economic growth, and boosting consumption is key to stabilizing growth. In 2024, final consumption expenditure contributed 44.5 percent to economic growth, far exceeding the contributions of investment (25.2 percent) and net exports (30.3 percent). The Central Economic Work Conference urged efforts to vigorously boost consumption and expand domestic demand on all fronts in 2025. Therefore, vigorously boosting consumption, creating more consumption scenarios, and fully tapping into residents' consumption potential are vital means to promote economic development and stabilize growth.

Holiday consumption is imperative, and strong consumption during the Spring Festival helps boost consumption throughout the year. Holiday consumption typically accounts for about 10 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods throughout the year. Research shows that sales of fast-moving consumer goods during the 2024 Spring Festival comprised 20 percent of the annual total. Products like automobiles, home appliances, and liquor are mostly purchased during the Spring Festival. According to the Ministry of Commerce, national online retail sales during the 2025 Chinese New Year Shopping Festival surpassed 700 billion yuan ($96 billion). 

Data from Meituan reveals that online reservations for Chinese New Year's Eve dinners, booked on the platform two weeks in advance, surged by 305 percent compared to the same period last year. According to the China Film Administration, box office revenue for the first day of the Spring Festival of the Year of the Snake (January 29) reached 1.805 billion yuan, with 35.15 million viewers, setting new records for both single-day box office and attendance. 

In addition, the total number of inter-regional trips from January 14, when the Spring Festival travel rush started, to February 2, was expected to reach 4.8 billion, a 7.2 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024. These latest figures indicate a strong start to consumption during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Snake, which is conducive to reversing the sluggish consumption trends in recent years, restoring consumer confidence, and driving the recovery and growth of consumption in 2025.

New consumer products, models, and scenarios have continued to emerge, and the expansion of domestic demands calls for the cultivation of new quality consumption forces. This year, many novel products, models, and scenarios have seen explosive growth, bringing new quality consumption forces for the expansion of domestic demand. Data from e-commerce platforms demonstrate that during the Spring Festival Shopping Festival, sales of durians from Thailand, blueberries from Yunnan, and cherries from Chile grew by 220.99 percent, 75.32 percent, and 63.96 percent, respectively. 

The extended eight-day Spring Festival, being the first since its inscription as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, saw intangible cultural heritage experiences become a favored option for consumers. Searches for "intangible cultural heritage experiences" and "intangible cultural heritage handicrafts" skyrocketed by 168 percent and 321 percent, respectively, and pre-bookings for flights to "intangible cultural heritage destinations" doubled. 

In addition to consumption for humans, spending on pets also became a focal point in the Spring Festival consumption market. Many pet lovers bought new clothes, toys, "Chinese New Year's Eve dinners," and "lucky pet food" for their pets. According to the "2025 Taobao Report on Chinese New Year's Eve Dinners for Pets," the number of searches for Chinese New Year's Eve dinners for pets on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao soared by over 150 percent, and transaction volumes grew by nearly 60 percent year on year. 

Furthermore, other emerging consumption models and scenarios are gradually gaining traction, such as the "goods economy" derived from anime, the "snow economy" centered around winter sports, the "silver economy" targeting the elderly, and the "debut economy" characterized by new products, new business forms, and new models. The rise of these new consumer products, models, and scenarios demonstrates that Chinese residents still have ample untapped consumption potential, and the demands for personalized and niche products are yet to be met.  

Government departments have attached great importance to boosting consumption, with policy combinations helping unleash the consumption potential of the Year of the Snake. The strong start of the consumption market in the Year of the Snake is inseparable from vigorous efforts of government departments at all levels, and residents' consumption has risen dramatically under policy incentives. Starting from January 20, consumers purchasing certain digital products can enjoy an incentive of 15 percent off the final sale price, with a cap of 500 yuan per item. 

Local governments across the country have also rolled out their own policy measures to further stimulate consumption and tap into the consumption potential of the Year of the Snake. Beijing launched the "Bring Beijing's Time-honored Brands Home" series of events. On January 7, the 2025 "National Time-honoured Brands Carnival," also known as "Celebrating Chinese New Year in Golden Wangfujing Street," kicked off along the Wangfujing Pedestrian Street, featuring over 100 key consumer events to create a joyful and harmonious shopping atmosphere. 

In Guangzhou, under the theme "Celebrating the Chinese New Year in Guangzhou, Appreciating Flowers in the Flower City – The Most Authentic Guangzhou New Year Experience," more than 2,000 cultural, tourism, and sports activities for the Spring Festival were organized, allowing both residents and tourists who celebrated the Spring Festival in Guangzhou to immerse themselves in the festive atmosphere of the Year of the Snake. Through these policy efforts aimed at stimulating consumption, local governments have contributed to the strong start of the consumption market in 2025, significantly boosting the growth of the consumption market throughout the year.

Finally, a range of additional policy measures can be adopted to turn the "strong start" of the consumption market of the Year of the Snake into sustained growth throughout the year. Such efforts include stimulating consumption by generating more wealth effects through price increases of assets in the stock and real estate markets; increasing minimum income tax threshold and intensifying individual income tax refunds; ensuring stable income growth for middle- and low-income groups; promoting price decreases in sectors such as water, electricity, and gas to ease residents' burdens; alleviating  pressures on residents in education, healthcare, and elderly care, among others. It is imperative to work on the income, expenditure, and distribution aspects of the economy to enhance residents' income and reduce their burdens, thereby making consumers more capable and willing to consume and drive year-round consumption growth.