Consumption boosts needed to offset virus' impact

China is boosting efforts to spur consumption, seeing it as a key step to hedge against the coronavirus epidemic's impact, the country's top economic regulator said on Wednesday.

Ha Zengyou, an official from the National Development and Reform Commission, told a news conference expanding consumer spending is a critical move to foster a strong domestic market.

"As China is gradually restoring order to production and life, suppressed consumption desire will be unleased after the epidemic," Ha said. "Meanwhile, new types of consumption will continue to grow, such as online shopping and other online services, providing a new impetus to economic growth."

According to Ha, the NDRC will make a big push to cultivate new types of consumption and foster consumption upgrades.

The NDRC will speed up construction of new infrastructure, such as 5G networks and data centers, prompt the growth of both online and offline consumption and encourage the use of smart green products.

More effort will also be made to ensure basic consumption demands for food and clothes, spur consumption of cultural tourism and catering, promote higher quality and an expansion of capacity in the consumption of elderly caring and childcare, promote health consumption and unleash the potential of third and fourth-tier cities and rural markets, Ha said.

Currently, consumption remains the main driver of economic growth, contributing to nearly 60 percent of China's growth in 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics said.