The latest data released by the National Information Center shows that in the first quarter of this year, driven by various consumption promotion policies, my country's consumer market continued to heat up and consumption potential was released at an accelerated pace. Offline consumption is accelerating, holiday tourism consumption is booming, colorful activities are fascinating, and a group of leaping numbers vividly demonstrate the recovery momentum of the consumer market under the policy dividends. So, what new changes and new characteristics have my country's offline consumption presented in the first quarter?
Chun and Jingming, Jingshan Town, Yuhang, Zhejiang Province is soaked in a faint tea fragrance. Here, in addition to Jingshan tea, matcha derivatives, tea sets and other special products, there are also smart matcha machines, robot dog deliverymen and AI Lu Yu, which attracted a lot of attention.
This Qingming Festival holiday, a series of new offline consumption scenes emerge one after another, such as: Chongqing Fuling creates the Qingming Festival "Variety Green Group"; Shanghai Gucun Park Sakura Island launches the first immersive night cherry light and shadow show in Shanghai; Jiangxi, Sichuan and other places, tourists can take fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters to experience the visual shock of "appreciating flowers in the air".
High-frequency data from the National Information Center shows that the rapid recovery of offline consumption has also become a highlight of the consumer market in the first quarter. Yang Daoling, director of the Big Data Analysis Department of the Big Data Development Department of the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that the offline consumption hot index of the National Information Center increased by 14.2% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 9.1 percentage points from the previous quarter.
Yang Daoling: Among them, March increased by 20.0% year-on-year, 4.7 percentage points higher than the previous two months, and the growth rate continued to rise. The operating popularity index of small commodity market increased by 16.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, of which 21.6% year-on-year in March, indicating that the sales of small commodities closest to residents' lives continue to remain vigorous and vibrant, and people's livelihood consumption demand is accelerating.
After the Spring Festival, service consumption in various places is still hot. As night falls, on the Wanlimiao Pedestrian Street of Shijiazhuang, Hebei, there are art markets, Tongle theaters, traditional pastry shops, first stores of Internet celebrity shops, and super experience stores of well-known e-commerce brands... all kinds of shops are dazzling, and the streets are crowded with tourists from all over the world who come to check in.
Here, the new business model of the integration of culture, commerce, tourism, entertainment and ecology provides tourists with a richer consumption experience, and continues to introduce first stores, first launches, first shows and first exhibitions, injecting new vitality into the consumer market.
Liu Zhe, Deputy Director of the Pedestrian Street Management Committee: We are constantly innovating the operation methods of the block, introducing more first-hand stores, time-honored brands, and fashionable consumer brands, integrating into diversified business formats, and creating more comfortable and higher-quality consumption scenarios. The daily passenger flow can reach 300,000 people, and during holidays, the average daily passenger flow can exceed 400,000 people.
In the first quarter of this year, my country's life service consumption market ushered in a "warm spring". The National Information Center's life service consumption popularity index increased by 18.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, an increase of 7.4 percentage points from the previous quarter, of which 14.5% year-on-year in March.
In addition, "big items consumption" such as automobiles and home appliances ushered in a new round of growth boom. The data monitored by the National Information Center on the Internet Retail of major home appliance categories showed that the online retail sales of related home appliances increased by 9.0% year-on-year in the first quarter, continuing the good momentum of rapid growth in the first two quarters; among which, the year-on-year increase in March was 32.3%, indicating that the demand for home appliance replacement is being released at an accelerated pace in the spring home improvement season. Yang Daoling noticed that the data on car consumption is particularly eye-catching.
Yang Daoling: Data from the China Passenger Car Association shows that as of March 23 this year, the retail volume of my country's passenger car market has increased by 5% year-on-year, and the cumulative year-on-year growth of new energy vehicles has increased by 34%. Among them, from March 1 to 23, the year-on-year growth rates of passenger cars and new energy vehicles were 18% and 40% respectively, significantly faster than the previous two months, and consumers' willingness to buy cars continued to increase.
According to data from the Automobile Dealers Association, domestic passenger car retail sales increased by 1.2% year-on-year from January to February, of which 26% year-on-year in February, showing an accelerated upward trend. Li Gang, Director of the Market Operation and Consumption Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that continuing to improve the old-for-new system of automobiles is the next focus.
Li Gang: Last year, we developed a car trade-in system, and connected data from relevant departments to realize "one-time declaration and one-network joint review" of subsidies, and at the same time launched a home appliance trade-in qualification verification system. This year, we will further improve the functions of relevant systems, such as adding the "cross-regional data verification and comparison" function to continuously improve the review efficiency. At the same time, we will guide local governments to further simplify the process and improve the allocation speed.
Recently, boosting consumption has welcomed favorable policies. The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Special Action Plan to Boost Consumption", deploying 30 key tasks in 8 aspects, including the action to increase income for urban and rural residents, the action to guarantee and support for consumption capacity, and the action to improve quality and benefit the people. Li Gang said that with the gradual implementation of the policy, four aspects of commodity consumption, service consumption, new consumption and consumption scenarios will continue to improve.
Li Gang: In the next step, we will work with relevant departments to actively promote the initial launch economy, encourage domestic and foreign companies to open their first stores, and hold their first debut. Develop "artificial intelligence + consumption", promote "IP + consumption", and continue to create new consumption growth points. We will organize a series of activities of "Shopping in China" to create more "must-buy, must-eat, playable, and considerable" commercial, tourism, cultural and sports stores integrated consumption scenarios. At the same time, we will continue to implement urban commercial quality improvement actions to create more high-quality pedestrian streets and business districts to improve the shopping experience.
