Golden Week spending reflects growing consumer confidence: China Daily editorial

The National Day holiday has driven home the fact that the recovery of the world's second-largest economy has gained solid momentum and there is a palpable widespread post-epidemic feel-good mood in the country.

Before the Oct 1-8 holiday, some people were still holding a wait-and-see attitude before deciding whether the country's fight against the worst public health crisis since its founding had been won.

Now with no local novel coronavirus infections reported during the holiday, they can rest assured that, for the present at least, that is indeed the case.

That most people in the country were already confident that the virus had been basically overcome has been a boon for the domestic tourism industry which saw a strong pickup during the holiday.

Data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism indicate that over the past eight days, people in China have made more than 600 million trips at home generating around 500 billion yuan ($73.65 billion) in tourism revenue.

Although the two figures did not reach the levels of the same period last year — being about 80 percent and 70 percent respectively — given that the outbreak has taken its toll on people's spending power and willingness to spend, the performance reflects a strong recovery in consumer confidence.

If this momentum can be maintained, the Chinese economy — which surged 3.2 percent in the second quarter from the 6.8 percent fall in the first quarter — might realize substantial positive growth this year, despite the combined blows it has taken from the pandemic and the US administration's containment and protectionist policies.

That being said, China might be the only major economy to see positive growth this year.

That's why the world has paid unusual attention to the National Day holiday, seeing it as an indicator of the trend of the Chinese economy.

China has not disappointed, and its pandemic control success and economic recovery should instill confidence in other countries that they can do the same, and in doing so, sustain their parts of the global supply chains.

Which is no easy job given the extent to which the US administration has tried to exploit the pandemic to sow the seeds of division so it can reshape the global supply chains to its advantage.

However, despite the emphasis on domestic production and demand in the switch to the "dual circulation" mode proposed by President Xi Jinping, the recovery of the Chinese economy will never be smooth until the virus is tamed worldwide.

Which is why China is trying to prevent the US from spreading its political virus and doing its utmost to strengthen the cohesion of the global trade system.