The release of domestic demand during the "summer season" promotes consumption and takes advantage of the trend. Xinhua News Agency | Economic Reference Report | Domestic Demand

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 12th. The "Economic Information Daily" published an article on July 12 "The release of domestic demand in the" Summer "to promote consumption and take advantage of the situation." The article said, until midsummer, summer open. The reporter noticed that in recent years, relevant central departments and local governments have deployed to seize the summer consumption season, launch a series of activities such as food festivals, non-nightlife festivals, and summer Tesco festivals, issue consumer vouchers in various fields such as catering and home appliances, and increase Preferential subsidies have promoted consumption to take advantage of the trend. At the same time, more long-term initiatives are also in the pipeline to build a solid foundation for sustained consumption growth.

As night fell, the Baishamen Cultural and Creative Market in Haikou became lively. Ms. Zheng, a tourist from Henan, and her family of four came to Hainan for vacation for the first time and specifically came to check in. "There are a lot of delicious food here, which meets our expectations," she said.

As a newly popular night market in Haikou, Baishamen Cultural and Creative Market gathers snacks from all over the country, authentic cuisine from Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, and a variety of unique handicrafts, attracting a large number of citizens and tourists to experience.

Such scenes are not uncommon. The "Nanning Night" neighborhood located in Liangqing District, Nanning City has become even more lively during the summer. Light shows, food exhibitions, ethnic performances... The shouting and music are constantly heard.

In Liuzhou, many tourists came to visit. The "clocking in" online popular snack Luosifen was crowded in the streets. For the convenience of tourists visiting night markets and eating late night snacks, Liuzhou has opened a special line for "late night snack food buses", connecting frequent check-in points for tourists.

There are also many cities where night riding is popular. In recent times, the cycling volume in Guangzhou, known as the "city that never sleeps," has significantly increased, with a 20% increase compared to before the summer, continuing from 19:00 to 2am, with no decrease in popularity. Beijing Road, the Pearl River New Town, Zoo and other various food, drink and entertainment consumption gathering areas are popular and become popular choices for cycling.

The influx of people also drives consumption growth. According to Meituan data, since the summer, life service categories represented by dine in dining, leisure and entertainment, hotels and homestays have reached their peak orders for the entire day at 7pm. From the perspective of business circles, Shanghai Disney, Monument to the people's Liberation, Changsha Wuyi Square, Chongqing Guanyinqiao, and Chengdu Chunxi Road have become the five most active business circles for night consumption in China. Taking Guanyin Bridge in Chongqing as an example, nighttime consumption has increased by about 60% compared to the same period last year.

The active night economy in various regions has become a bright spot in the consumer market. In fact, consumption has continued to recover since the beginning of this year and has walked out of an upward curve. Previously, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, Shu Jueting, responded to a question from the Economic Reference Daily that the domestic consumer market has accelerated its recovery since the beginning of this year. In the first quarter, the contribution rate of final consumer spending to economic growth reached 66.6%, once again becoming the first driving force of economic growth. In May, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 12.7% year-on-year, with a growth rate of 9.3% from January to May, an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to January to April.

This trend is still ongoing. In recent years, the peak consumption seasons such as the Dragon Boat Festival and summer have been coming one after another, further stimulating the release of consumption potential. On July 6th, the China Federation of Commerce released the July China Retail Industry Prosperity Index, which showed that the index was 50.1% in July and remained in the expansion range for seven consecutive months.

However, the index has slightly decreased by 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous month, indicating a slowdown in retail consumption growth. Expert analysis suggests that the current trend of consumer recovery is still ongoing, but the momentum has slowed down. How to seize the "window period" of economic recovery and the peak summer consumption season, further consolidate the momentum of consumption recovery, has become an important direction for policy deployment.

From the perspective of activity arrangements, relevant departments and local governments actively launch diverse consumer promotion activities to meet the consumption needs of the masses. The Ministry of Commerce has designated 2023 as the "Consumer Boosting Year" and has explicitly launched consumption scenarios such as the "Night Life Festival" and "Digital Consumption Festival".

Local governments have also put in real money and silver to promote consumption and expand domestic demand, and multiple cities have launched a new round of consumption promotion activities. For example, Yunnan has launched the 2023 "Caiyun Home Appliance Consumption Voucher" distribution campaign throughout the province, Zhengzhou, Henan has launched the second phase of catering consumption voucher distribution, and Hainan will distribute 20 million yuan of tax-free shopping consumption vouchers

"These activities run through the Dragon Boat Festival, summer, and even longer, adding more confidence and vitality to the consumer market," said Shu Jueting.

According to Guan Lixin, a researcher at the Institute of Circulation and Consumption at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, summer consumption combines various scenarios such as holiday consumption, nighttime consumption, and experiential consumption, which is conducive to cultivating consumption hotspots such as outdoor leisure sports, green smart homes, and cultural tourism.

Guan Lixin suggests that in order to create a growth point for summer consumption, it is necessary to increase the supply of high-quality consumption, create more immersive, interactive, and experiential consumption scenarios, and improve service quality. We still need to continuously optimize the consumer market environment, protect consumer rights, and ensure that everyone can consume with confidence.

While promoting consumption through activities, signals of more long-term measures are also constantly being released.

The executive meeting of the State Council held on June 29th pointed out that we should play a good role in policy combination, promote home consumption policies, and connect and cooperate with policies such as the renovation of old residential areas, aging friendly residential areas, convenient living circle construction, and the improvement of waste material recycling networks, forming a joint force to promote consumption.

Previously, the Ministry of Commerce proposed to continue improving consumption policies, strengthening departmental collaboration, and promoting a series of policy measures to support the recovery and expansion of consumption. At the same time, based on the positioning of business functions, targeted supporting measures will be introduced to promote high-quality development of the automotive, home furnishings, brand consumption, and catering industries. The National Development and Reform Commission also stated that efforts should be made to formulate and introduce policies to restore and expand consumption, continuously improve the consumption environment, and unleash the potential for service consumption; Stabilizing automobile consumption, accelerating the construction of charging stations, energy storage facilities, and supporting power grid renovation, and vigorously promoting the introduction of new energy vehicles to rural areas.

Looking ahead to the whole year, the market generally expects that with the combined effect of relevant consumption promotion policies and activities, consumption is expected to achieve stable growth throughout the year. Among them, the research report of Haitong Securities predicts that with economic recovery and policy efforts, consumer fundamentals are expected to gradually improve. The policy focuses on promoting consumption growth through bulk consumer goods, and this year the total retail sales of consumer goods will grow by 8% to 9%.

The China Federation of Commerce also believes that since the beginning of this year, the overall prosperity index of leasing and retail industry has been rising, with commercial retail as the main focus, integrating elements of modern service and life service industries, applying digital technology, innovating diversified consumption scenarios, and reflecting the formation of endogenous driving forces for the high-quality development of the retail industry.

In the view of Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, the accumulation of positive factors in various aspects will release accumulated momentum for the sustained growth of China's consumer market and domestic demand potential, further laying a solid foundation for consumption growth.