Spring Festival spending up

Consumers showed strong spending power during the Spring Festival holiday this year, boosting the steady growth of the country's overall consumption market in the first quarter, official data showed.

Over the holiday period, sales of key retail and catering enterprises in China grew by 4.1 percent year-on-year. Food, festive products, green and smart home appliances, mobile phones and tablets recorded booming sales, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

In particular, sales of household appliances and communication equipment from retail enterprises that are monitored by the commerce ministry jumped by over 10 percent year-on-year.

A dynamic service consumption market was also seen during the holiday period, with high demand for dining, traveling and watching films. Sales of catering firms monitored by the commerce ministry grew by 6.2 percent year-on-year, and China's Spring Festival holiday box office hit 9.51 billion yuan ($1.3 billion), a record high.

"China's consumption market has indicated a strong resilience, great potential and sufficient vitality, and the basic trend of recovery and improvement remains unchanged," He Yongqian, the spokesperson for the commerce ministry, said during a news conference.

She added that with the country's expansion of the trade-in policy for consumer goods and various consumption promotional activities being carried out, the consumption market will show steady growth trend in the first quarter.

From Jan 28 to Feb 3, online and offline sales in Shanghai came in at 46.5 billion yuan, according to the Consumer Market Big Data Laboratory (Shanghai), which is affiliated with the Fudan Development Institute.

Before the festival, the local government of Shanghai issued subsidies for the trade-in of home appliances, home decorations, digital products and cars, driving significant trade-in sales growth during the holiday, the big data lab said.

"China's trade-in policy has driven the growth rate of goods consumption, and the growth rate of total retail sales is expected to record a 'good start' this year," said a research report of Soochow Securities.

China issued 300 billion yuan in treasury bonds last year to support equipment upgrades and trade-in deals for consumer goods, significantly boosting the growth of consumption and economic momentum.

During the holiday, retail sales of home appliance products in some cities such as Chongqing; Changchun, Jilin province; and Jinan, Shandong province jumped 20 to 30 percent year-on-year, data from UBS Investment Bank showed.

"The trend of upgrading products continues and the demand of tradeins in third — and fourth-tier cities and rural households has been climbing. Some e-commerce platforms saw their sales more than double year-on-year, and the growth could be attributed to the purchase of products by young consumers for their relatives living in hometowns," said Peng Yanyan, head of China consumer products research at UBS Investment Bank.

Meanwhile, over the holiday period, Beijing's department stores, supermarkets, specialty stores, catering and e-commerce platforms that are monitored by Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, achieved sales of 8.1 billion yuan, up 4.2 percent year-on-year.

In Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, some time-honored restaurants such Louwailou and Zhiweiguan issued coupons to consumers during the holiday, driving a new wave of dining consumption in the city.

From Jan 21 to Feb 3, retail sales in Hangzhou achieved 26.68 billion yuan, up 18.4 percent year-on-year, according to Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce.