Today's data selection: The box office of 2024 Spring Festival movies hit a record; the number of marriages in many places rebounded for the first time in recent years

The National Film Administration released data on February 18 that my country’s 2024 Spring Festival movie box office reached 8.016 billion yuan, setting a new Spring Festival box office record, with 163 million moviegoers. Judging from the box office performance of individual films, "Hot and Furious" leads the box office, while "Flying Life 2", "Bear Infested: Reverse Time and Space" and "Article 20" rank second to fourth on the Spring Festival box office list. Relevant analysis believes that this year’s Spring Festival movie market supply is mainly comedy genres. The films are highly topical and continue to arouse heated discussions on the Internet, effectively attracting audiences to enter theaters to celebrate the New Year.

The scenic spot is crowded, but the sales office is particularly deserted. During the Spring Festival holiday in the Year of the Dragon, the property market continued to remain at a low temperature, with average daily transaction volume reaching a new low in the past five years.

Monitoring data from the Zhuge Data Research Center shows that during the 2024 Spring Festival holiday, 240 new commercial housing units were sold in the 10 key cities, with an average daily transaction volume of 30 units. The average daily transaction volume dropped by 13.58% compared with last year's Spring Festival holiday.

Specifically, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen saw a slight rebound in the transaction volume of new commercial housing, boosted by the favorable policies for centralized optimization before the holidays. The average daily transaction volume in Beijing and Shenzhen has increased from "zero" in the same period of 2023 to 2 units. In Shanghai, it has increased from 3 units to 5 units compared with the same period last year. In Guangzhou, the average daily transaction volume is 2 units.

Overseas study and travel expenditures have recovered to 80% of 2019 levels

On February 18, preliminary data on the balance of payments for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023 released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed that in U.S. dollars, in the fourth quarter of 2023, my country's current account surplus was US$55.2 billion, of which the goods trade surplus was 153.6 billion U.S. dollars, a service trade deficit of 61 billion U.S. dollars, a primary income deficit of 41.8 billion U.S. dollars, and a secondary income surplus of 4.4 billion U.S. dollars. In the capital and financial account, reserve assets increased by $12.1 billion.

In US dollar terms, in 2023, my country's current account surplus will be US$264.2 billion, including a goods trade surplus of US$608 billion, a services trade deficit of US$229.4 billion, a primary income deficit of US$129.6 billion, and a secondary income surplus of US$15.2 billion. In the capital and financial account, reserve assets increased by US$15.6 billion.

Wang Chunying, deputy director and spokesperson of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said that my country’s international balance of payments will maintain a basic balance in 2023. Among them, the current account surplus was 264.2 billion U.S. dollars, and the ratio of the surplus scale to the GDP in the same period was 1.5%, which continued to be within a reasonable and balanced range; cross-border capital flows have stabilized and improved, and investment in China has generally maintained a net inflow pattern.

Specifically, the scale of the goods trade surplus in 2023 will be the second highest in history.

In 2023, my country's balance of payments trade surplus in goods will be US$608 billion, second only to the size of the surplus in 2022 and the second highest in history. Among them, exports of goods trade were US$3,179.6 billion and imports were US$2,571.6 billion, both at historically high levels. In 2023, my country's economy will continue to recover, the resilience of foreign trade will increase, and the import and export scale of goods trade will increase quarter by quarter, supporting my country's current account to maintain a relatively high-scale surplus.

In terms of trade in services, in 2023, my country's trade in services deficit will be US$229.4 billion, showing an orderly recovery trend towards pre-epidemic levels.

On the one hand, travel and transportation are still the main deficit items in service trade. Among them, the travel deficit was US$180.6 billion, and the scale of overseas study and travel expenditures has recovered to nearly 80% of 2019. On the other hand, the service trade surplus item maintained growth. Among them, the surplus of other commercial services such as consulting and advertising was US$38 billion, which remained at a high level in recent years, an increase of 96% compared with 2019; the surplus of telecommunications, computer and information services was US$19.2 billion, an increase of 8% compared with 2022, and an increase of 96% compared with 2019. An increase of 1.4 times.

The number of marriages in many places in my country has rebounded for the first time in recent years

Recently, many places have released marriage registration data for 2023.

Data shows that the number of marriage registrations in many places has increased significantly in 2023, and has rebounded for the first time in recent years.

According to Jiangsu media reports, data recently released by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Civil Affairs show that in 2023, the Jiangsu Civil Affairs Department handled a total of 453,852 marriage registrations, including 452,273 marriage registrations for mainland residents and 1,579 marriages involving foreigners, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents, and overseas Chinese. The number of marriage registrations has shown a downward trend year by year from 2019 to 2022, and will rebound in 2023 compared with 2022, with an increase of approximately 10.08%.

Data shows that the average age of marriage registration in Jiangsu Province in 2023 is 31.39 years old, including 32.02 years old for men and 30.75 years old for women. By type: the average age of first marriage in the province in 2023 is 27.76 years old, of which men are 28.48 years old and women are 26.97 years old; the average age of remarriage in the province is 38.33 years old, of which men are 40.6 years old and women are 38.44 years old; the average age of remarriage in the province is 41.77 years old , among which men are 42.59 years old and women are 40.95 years old.

In Wuxi City, data released by the Wuxi Civil Affairs Bureau shows that there will be 30,746 couples getting married in Wuxi City in 2023. Compared with the 26,810 new couples in 2022, there are 3,936 more couples, an increase of nearly 15% in registrations. Public data shows that there were 29,795 marriage registrations in Wuxi in 2019, 25,981 couples in 2020, 27,526 couples in 2021, and 26,810 couples in 2022, which have been hovering below 30,000 couples. Last year was the first time in five years since 2019 that the number of new couples returned to 30,000.

According to the WeChat public account "Huaibei Civil Affairs", statistics show that in 2023, a total of 21,179 marriages were registered in the city, a year-on-year increase of 91.87%; 4,618 divorces were registered, a year-on-year increase of 38.06%.

According to Liuyang Daily, the Marriage Registration Center of Liuyang Civil Affairs Bureau released marriage data for 2023: 5,443 couples were registered for marriage throughout the year. This is the first time it has stopped falling and rebounded since 2015, with an increase of 458 couples compared to 2022. "The number of marriage registrations in Liuyang has been declining for many years. It stopped falling in 2023 and rebounded slightly, mainly due to the impact of the general environment." Zhang Jian, director of the Marriage Registration Center of the Civil Affairs Bureau, analyzed that since 1989, Liuyang's birth rate has begun to decline. , and has maintained this trend in the past 30 years. The decrease in the number of births has led to a decrease in the marriageable population, which is the main reason for the continuous decline in the number of marriages in recent years. "2023 is the year when the economy recovers after the epidemic. The demand for marriages postponed during the epidemic has been released. In addition, a series of incentives in recent years have The implementation of the marriage and childbearing policy has also stimulated people’s enthusiasm for marriage and childbearing to a certain extent.”

In addition, the number of marriage registrations in 2023 has also increased in Taiyuan, Shanxi, Xuchang, Henan and other places.

The per capita consumption of duty-free shopping in Hainan’s outlying islands is 8,358 yuan.

During the Spring Festival, the duty-free market on Hainan’s outlying islands continues to be booming. The reporter learned from Haikou Customs that from February 10 to February 17, 2024, Haikou Customs supervised a total of 2.489 billion yuan in duty-free shopping on outlying islands, with 297,700 shoppers and per capita consumption of 8,358 yuan. It is understood that with the development of Hainan's duty-free industry, duty-free products have become a must-buy "Hainan specialty" for tourists coming to Qiong.