China to further build consumer-targeted domestic market

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Consumers are free to make choices and the policy system should be targeted to their demands, officials from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said during a press conference Tuesday, during which the plan to further promote steady growth in consumption and create a strong domestic market was published.

According to data from the NBS, China's consumer goods sales, a main gauge of consumption, grew nine percent year-on-year in 2018 to reach 38.10 trillion yuan (about 5.61 trillion U.S. dollars), and consumption contributed 76.2 percent to economic growth overall, 18.6 percent higher than that in 2017.

Why choose car consumption as a growth engine?

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China sold 28.08 million vehicles last year, down 2.76 percent year-on-year, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.

The slowing down of car purchases is a major reason for the decline of consumption growth in 2018, Liu Yunan, a NDRC official, said, noting the potential of automobile consumption in China is still enormous, since every 1,000 people in China own 170 cars on average and that figure is much higher in other countries, such as 800 cars per 1,000 people in the U.S.

According to Liu, a preferential policy for financial support to eliminate old diesel trucks and promote new energy vehicles (NEV) will work to protect the environment and also boost the consumption of high-quality automobiles.

These supportive measures aim to better combine the advances in both consumption and the car industry, further matching the supply with demands rather than just more cars, he added.

What's new in spring festival purchasing?

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Consumers are focusing more on health and fashion as organic food, smart home products, as well as digital products, have become major festival preparations, said Wang Bin, a spokesperson from Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

Many e-commerce and take-out platforms, as well as local stores, will open as usual during the spring festival holiday, expecting to maintain the convenient and fast service consumers expect, Wang said.

MOFCOM together with other departments has taken, and will continue to make strong efforts to guarantee the supply of daily necessities and encourage consumption-promoting activities during the holiday, he added.