In the first 7 months, China's service retail sales increased by 20.3% year-on-year. Retail sales | Service | China
Beijing, August 15th (Xinhua) - The National Bureau of Statistics increased the release of service retail sales data for the first time on August 15th. Data shows that from January to July, China's service retail sales increased by 20.3% year-on-year, significantly faster than the growth rate of 7.3% in the total retail sales of consumer goods during the same period.
Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, introduced at the press conference of the State Council Information Office on the same day that the retail sales of services mainly refer to the total value of non production and non business services directly provided by enterprises to individuals and other units in the form of transactions, aiming to reflect the value of services sold by service providers in monetary form that belong to consumption, including the retail sales of services in transportation, accommodation, catering, education, health, sports, entertainment and other fields.
"To help various sectors of society understand the situation of service consumption, starting from August 2023, we will release the cumulative growth rate of service retail sales on a monthly basis. This is also an important achievement of the National Bureau of Statistics in promoting the reform of statistical methods and systems." Fu Linghui said that the total retail sales of consumer goods in society focus on reflecting the consumption of physical goods, but do not include consumption of other services besides catering services, which is difficult to fully reflect the development of the consumer market. To this end, the National Bureau of Statistics has carried out reforms in the methods and systems of trade and economic statistics, expanded the scope of consumption statistics, and established indicators that reflect the development of service consumption, namely service retail sales.
In recent years, the National Bureau of Statistics has conducted in-depth research on statistical methods for the service consumption market, conducted trial calculations of service retail sales, gradually accumulated calculation experience, continuously enriched data sources, and improved calculation methods. Currently, the statistical monitoring mechanism is established and sound, and data production is stable and smooth. From the calculation results, it can be seen that the match between service retail sales and relevant indicators is good, which can objectively reflect the operating situation of the service consumption market.
![In the first 7 months, China's service retail sales increased by 20.3% year-on-year. Retail sales | Service | China](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/d5586cfce07c1822189bee47f0a30e4d.jpg)
From the situation in July, the overall consumer market remained stable, with a good increase in service-oriented consumption. From January to July, the retail sales of services increased by 20.3% year-on-year. Driven by the expansion of service demand, service prices increased by 1.2% year-on-year in July, an increase of 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous month, indicating a significant driving effect of service consumption.
Fu Linghui said that from the next stage, the overall employment situation will gradually improve, which is conducive to increasing household income. With the gradual improvement of market confidence and consumption expectations, consumption is expected to maintain a sustained growth trend.