China Boosts Spending During Holiday Season Following New COVID-19 Measures

By Ma Jingjing

Dec 30, 2022 03:51 PM

Photo: CFP

Chinese government agencies, localities and the business community will hold a series of intensive online and offline shopping promotion events and issue consumption vouchers during the upcoming New Year holiday and Spring Festival holiday in late January to boost consumers' confidence and spur consumption following the country's major adjustment and optimization of COVID-19 measures. 

On Friday, a month-long online Spring Festival shopping spree was launched in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province. Held jointly by government agencies including the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the event will last from this Friday to January 28, 2023.

Shu Jueting, a MOFCOM spokesperson, said at a press briefing on Thursday that this is the third consequent year that government agencies organize such an event, as the authorities are trying their best to meet consumers' shopping demand and to ensure that they have a happy Spring Festival. "Currently, localities are actively organizing e-commerce platforms, manufacturers and logistic firms to plan relevant activities," she said.

Domestic e-commerce platform JD.com launched an online shopping spree at 8 pm on Thursday, offering discounts, payment by instalments and red envelopes. 

Yunda Express, a leading delivery company, told the Global Times that they have prepared incentives to encourage couriers to keep working during the upcoming holidays and they reached a deal with short video platform Douyin to ensure smooth delivery of the good sold on the platform.

In addition, many provinces and cities plan to issue consumption vouchers and conduct promotion activities to spur consumption recovery during the upcoming holidays.

Zhengzhou, capital city of Central China's Henan Province launched the first round of consumption vouchers worth 20 million yuan ($2.87 million) on Friday, while Jinan, capital city of East China's Shandong Province will launch digital vouchers worth 10 million yuan for the purchase of cars on Saturday, according to local governments.

"As the first holiday after the optimization of COVID-19 epidemic measures, the New Year holiday is expected to see a consumption peak," Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday.

He said that catering, accommodation, transport, tourism and the entertainment industry will gradually recover, with catering and daily consumption taking the lead in the rebound.

At the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference held from December 14 to 15, reviving and expanding consumption was explicitly described as a top priority in supporting growth.

The Chinese government may extend some supportive measures for consumption in 2023, enhance support for employment, especially jobs for youth and college graduates and boost household income growth, according to UBS economists led by Wang Tao.

"Residential consumption in China is expected to recover significantly, as the peak of the latest round of COVID-19 outbreak will end in the first quarter of 2023," they wrote in a note sent to the Global Times recently.

The authorities will continue to cement traditional consumption sectors and accelerate the development of new types of consumption, according to Shu, the spokesperson of MOFCOM. 

"Automobiles, home appliances, home decoration and catering are the pillar of the country's consumption and account for around one-fourth of the country's total retail sales," she said. 

The official also vowed efforts to stabilize car consumption and support the recovery of the catering industry as well as other service sectors and to boost rural residents' spending on green and smart home appliances.