China's consumer market growth accelerates in October 2024

Officers of the Department of Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce talked about the situation of China's consumer market in October 2024:

In October, the policy of trade-in of old consumer goods, combined with a package of incremental policies accelerated the release of the consumer market growth rate significantly. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of consumer goods in the month was 4.54 trillion RMB, raised 4.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate accelerated by 1.6 percentage points compared with the previous month. From January to October, the total retail sales of consumer goods was 39.90 trillion RMB, increased 3.5% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than that of January-September.

First, the growth rate of commodity consumption accelerated.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales of commodities in October amounted to RMB 4.04 trillion, an increase of 5.0% year-on-year, with the growth rate accelerated by 1.7 percentage points compared with the previous month; commodities retail sales of above-designated-size enterprises increased 6.8% year-on-year, with the year-on-year growth of cosmetics, sports and recreational goods, cultural and office supplies, and communication equipment increasing by 40.1%, 26.7%, 18.0% and 14.4% respectively. The effectiveness of the trade-in of old consumer goods policy continued to showing its effect, with year-on-year growth in retail sales of automobiles, home appliances and furniture of above-designated-size enterprises of 3.7%, 39.2% and 7.4% respectively.

Secondly, the potential of service consumption is released.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales of services increased by 6.5% year-on-year from January to October, of which catering revenues amounted to 4.44 trillion yuan, up 5.9% year-on-year. According to data from relevant organizations, the number of domestic trips and the total spending of tourists on trips during the National Day holiday increased by 5.9% and 6.3% year-on-year, while the number of business performances and box office revenues increased by 14.6% and 25.9% year-on-year, respectively.

Thirdly, online retail is growing faster.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), online retail sales increased by 8.8% year-on-year from January to October, of which online retail sales of physical goods increased by 8.3% year-on-year, with the growth rate accelerated by 0.4 percentage points from January to September, accounting for 25.9% of total retail sales of consumer goods. Data from the State Post Bureau showed that the volume of express delivery business grew 24.0% year-on-year in October.

Fourth, synchronized growth saw in urban and rural consumption.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in October, retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas amounted to 3.93 trillion RMB, raised 4.7% year-on-year, with the growth rate accelerated by 1.6 percentage points compared with that of the previous month, while retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas amounted to 614.1 billion RMB, increased 4.9%, with the growth rate accelerated by 1.0 percentage points compared with that of the previous month. During the period of January-October, retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas and rural areas amounted to 34.51 trillion RMB and 5.38 trillion RMB, respectively, with the growth rate increased by 3.4% and 4%, respectively.