The person in charge of the Department of Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce talks about the situation of China's consumer market in September 2024

In September, the effectiveness of the policy of replacing old consumer goods with new ones continued to be released, and the consumer market showed a good trend of recovery.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of consumer goods rose 3.2% year on year to 4.11 trillion yuan, 1.1 percentage points faster than the previous month. In the first three quarters of this year, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 35.36 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 3.3 percent.

The first is to show the effect of replacing the old with the new. Retail sales rose 3.3 percent year on year to 3.67 trillion yuan in September, 1.4 percentage points faster than the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Retail sales of household appliances above designated units increased by 20.5% year-on-year, 17.1 percentage points higher than that of the previous month; Retail sales of automobiles and furniture both increased by 0.4% year-on-year, turning from negative to positive.

Second, service consumption grew rapidly. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first three quarters of this year, the retail sales of services increased by 6.7% year-on-year, 3.7 percentage points faster than the retail sales of goods in the same period. The revenue of catering industry increased by 6.2% to 3.94 trillion yuan. Per capita consumer spending on education, culture, entertainment and transportation and communications increased by 10.1% and 10.0%, respectively.

Third, coordinated online and offline development. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first three quarters, online consumption grew rapidly, and online retail sales of physical goods increased by 7.9% year-on-year, accounting for 25.7% of the total. Physical retail sales grew steadily, and retail sales of convenience stores, professional stores and supermarkets increased by 4.7%, 4.0% and 2.4% respectively.

Fourthly, rural consumption is faster than urban consumption. Retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas rose 3.9 percent year on year to 606.8 billion yuan in September, 0.8 percentage points faster than those in urban areas, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. In the first three quarters of this year, retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas reached 4.77 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 4.4 percent, 1.2 percentage points faster than that in urban areas. The per capita consumption expenditure of rural residents increased by 6.5 percent year on year, 1.5 percentage points faster than that of urban residents.