Phoenix TV:

Over the past year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have released a series of policies and measures to stabilize the economy. Consumption plays a fundamental role in sustaining economic growth. What are the measures the Ministry of Commerce has taken to promote consumption? What are the highlights? Thank you.

Xu Xingfeng:

Thank you for your question. As you mentioned, last year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council promptly issued a series of policies and measures to stabilize the economy, among which promoting consumption was a major part of our work. The Ministry of Commerce fully implemented the decisions and plans made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. First, we adopted detailed policies and concrete measures to recover and expand consumption actively. Ms. Guo just briefed us about the progress made in consumption. We have stabilized the consumption sector. Over the past year, we have focused on the following aspects:

First, we encouraged spending on major consumption. We usually call vehicles, home appliances, catering and housewares the four pillars of the consumption sector. Together they account for about a quarter of the total retail sales of consumer goods. Regarding vehicles, we worked with related departments and issued policies to stimulate auto circulation and expand spending on vehicles. As you may recall, a press conference was held to introduce such policies. These policies were efficient, covering 12 items in six aspects, and achieved substantial progress. In the second half of 2022, the sales of vehicles stopped falling and rebounded, registering a negative growth of 6.6% in the first half of the year and a positive growth of 10.7% in the second half of the year with the support of such policies. The proportion of new energy vehicles (NEVs) to new car sales increased from one-eighth in 2021 to one-fourth in 2022, meaning that one out of every four vehicles was a NEV, rising from one in eight vehicles previously. In addition, we worked with relevant departments to promote the sales of green and smart home appliances and green building materials in rural areas. In terms of catering, targeted support policies have been introduced to encourage the recovery and development of catering consumption.

Second, we accelerated the development of new types of consumption. Targeted measures have been taken to promote e-commerce, green consumption, and winter sports-related consumption, advance the integration of online and offline consumption, and create new opportunities in the consumption sector. Online retail sales of physical goods climbed 6.2% year on year, 2.7 percentage points higher than in 2021. Online consumption is particularly striking in live-streamed e-commerce, where the number of live broadcasts, viewers, live-streamed products, and active hosts all multiplied compared to 2021.

Third, we upgraded the platforms and carriers of the consumption sector. The carriers refer to cities and rural areas. In terms of cities, we accelerated the development of international consumption center cities, held the first forum on international consumption center cities, and promoted the first 14 items of practices in four aspects. We focused on the role of 15-minute community life circles in cities, while leveraging the role of platforms such as smart stores and smart business districts. In other words, our efforts covered cities, sub-districts and business districts. At the same time, we carried out a three-year action plan to develop county-level commercial systems, improve county-level consumption channels, and steadily increase the proportion of retail sales of consumer goods at the township and county level to the total social retail sales throughout the year.

Fourth, we held various consumption promotion activities. While ensuring epidemic prevention and control measures, we successfully held a series of major exhibitions and fairs, including the China International Import Expo, the China International Consumer Products Expo, and the China International Fair for Trade in Services. By hosting such fairs, we were able to increase the supply of quality goods and services. In addition, we also organized a series of activities, including the International Consumption Season, a nationwide month-long pro-consumption campaign, an online Lunar New Year's Shopping Festival, the Brand and Quality Online Shopping Festival , the Home Appliances Consumption Season, and the Chinese Food Festival, to attract consumers. We guided local governments to carry out consumption promotion activities in line with local conditions. The central and local governments worked together, and ministries, associations and local governments held various activities to boost consumption.

Fifth, we ensured the consumption of necessities. As we all know, pandemic outbreaks emerged in different places in the past year, such as Shaanxi, Jilin, Shanghai, Hainan, Tibet and Xinjiang. We firmly implemented the decisions and plans made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. Putting people and their lives first, we established a cross-regional mechanism to ensure the supply of daily necessities and increased support for organizing and transporting goods. A response mechanism was built into the market to promptly follow up on any shortages of daily necessities. We released 10 batches of over 140,000 tons of central meat reserves into the market, effectively ensuring people's consumption needs in key regions and periods of time.

With these measures, the consumption market has been effectively stabilized. The market continued to show healthy momentum during the Spring Festival period. According to our monitoring, the sales revenue of key retail and catering enterprises increased by 6.8% compared to the same period last year. In 2023, we will continue to fully implement the decisions and plans made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, strive to overcome possible difficulties and challenges, and promote economic recovery and consumption through practical actions. 

Thank you!