China's newly-released plan on special initiatives to increase consumption emphasizes integrated efforts to drive consumer spending and enhance public wellbeing, an official with the country's top economic planner said on Monday.
The plan, issued on Sunday by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, aims to vigorously boost consumption, stimulate domestic demand across the board, and increase spending power by raising earnings and reducing financial burdens.
The plan, organized into eight major sections, adopts a holistic approach by simultaneously addressing factors such as income growth, service consumption quality enhancement, big-ticket consumption upgrading, and consumption environment improvement.
"The plan marks the first time that stabilizing the stock market and real estate market has been emphasized in a consumption-related policy document. It also outlines corresponding measures aimed at increasing the public's confidence, and stabilizing expectations for consumption," Li Chunlin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, said at a press conference in Beijing.
The country will allocate 300 billion yuan (about 41.45 billion U.S. dollars) of ultra-long special treasury bonds to support the consumer goods trade-in program this year, with the scope of the program to be further expanded, Li said.
"In the first two months of this year, the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles nationwide reached about 1.34 million units, and the sales of household appliances with the highest energy efficiency level amounted to 24.1 billion yuan, up 26 percent and 36 percent year on year, respectively. Sales of smart phones priced under 6,000 yuan reached approximately 33 million units, generating around 86 billion yuan in revenue. The average weekly sales volume and revenue grew by 19 percent and 29 percent, respectively, compared to the week before subsidies were introduced," he said.
The country will focus on the daily needs of the public by providing a more diverse and inclusive range of consumer goods, said Li.
"We aim to accelerate the establishment of community service outlets for shopping, dining, domestic services, and repair services, so that more residents can enjoy convenient services 'at their doorstep' or ' at their downstairs,'" he said.
By connecting consumer spending to broader social goals like elderly care improvement, childcare support and work-life balance, the plan embeds consumption growth within China's wider development objectives, signaling that consumption is being positioned not just as an economic target but as a means to enhance quality of life.
China’s new plan highlights integrated efforts to boost consumption, improve people’s wellbeing: official
