Beijing has been the largest domestic urban consumer market for nine years in a row, according to the recently held 2017 Beijing Business Summit Forum. The consumer spending of Beijing from January to November this year has exceeded 2.18 trillion yuan (US$331.4 billion), an increase of 8.7 percent year on year. Since 2015, over 3,600 shopfronts for daily amenities have been constructed or renovated in the capital city, where another 1,400 shopfronts, including 500 stores for green groceries, are to be constructed or renovated in 2018.
Reviews have shown that the consumption in Beijing has been picking up speed in transforming from commodity consumption to service consumption, which is the new powerhouse of consumption growth. The first 11 months of this year have seen an increase of 11.6 percent in service consumption, rendering a sum of 1.13 trillion yuan. Meanwhile, commodity consumption has increased by 5.7 percent, reaching a total of 1.05 trillion yuan. In particular, the monthly retail sales of consumer goods in November scored a record high of 122 billion yuan with an increase of 11 percent.
In the process of relocating the non-capital functions of Beijing, its business environment has been improved in multiple aspects. Within communities, traditional commerce has been in continuous upgrading to meet the new demands of the consumers. E-commerce and the internet in general have provided the residents with unprecedented convenience and expanded consumption scale in the communities.
Among the consumers in shopping malls, over 50 percent are those born after 1990. The young patrons have encouraged the popular online brands to march into shopping malls. In addition, the cultural consumption market in Beijing has performed remarkably with consumer spending of 90 billion yuan. Business in bookshops, cinemas, theaters, galleries, and exhibition halls has been booming. The number of brands in cultural and creative industries saw their presence in shopping malls increase by 11 percent than last year.
Beijing's Engel coefficient (an index used internationally to reflect the living standard of a country or region) has declined from 31.3 percent in 2012 to 21.1 percent in 2016 for urban residents, and from 33.3 percent to 26.9 percent for rural residents. At present, the indices in Beijing are lower than national averages by 8.2 percentage points in urban area, and 5.3 percentage points in rural area.