China has witnessed robust consumer activity across sectors during the record nine-day Spring Festival holiday, showing consumer confidence. The longer holiday period, ending on February 23, has provided an extended window for robust consumer activity across the travel, dining, entertainment and retail sectors, offering an early-year boost to the consumption sector. Data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) showed that the country’s key retail and dining enterprises recorded an 8.6% year-on-year increase in average daily sales during the first four days of the Spring Festival holiday. China launched a nationwide campaign for the holiday to ignite consumer spending, including consumer goods trade-ins, a prize invoice pilot program in which consumers with valid purchase invoices above a set threshold can enter a lottery to win cash prizes, and local consumption vouchers.
Gu Qingyang, Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, noted that Chinese authorities have prioritized consumption as a key economic driver, with Spring Festival holiday spending serving as a crucial barometer. “The growth demonstrates that the consumption-promotion policies have yielded tangible results,” Gu said. China’s consumer goods trade-in program has emerged as a powerful engine of holiday spending, driving about CNY196.39 billion in sales as of February 18 and benefiting 28.44 million consumers. In particular, consumer appetite for intelligent products has accelerated dramatically. During the holiday’s first three days, sales of smart wearable devices on major platforms surged 19.7% year-on-year, with smart glasses more than doubling and smart blood glucose monitors increasing 48.6%. “At the start of this year, the first group of fiscal funds totaling CNY62.5 billion has been disbursed to local commerce departments for this year’s consumer goods trade-ins,” Vice Commerce Minister Sheng Qiuping told a news conference ahead of the holiday. In addition, a total of CNY2.05 billion has been allocated by local governments for direct consumer benefits via vouchers, subsidies and digital cash red packets, Sheng said.
Gold jewelry remains favored purchase during the peak Spring Festival consumption season, with Chinese zodiac-inspired pieces and investment-grade bullion flying off shelves despite gold prices hovering at high levels. Gold products infused with Year of the Horse imagery and auspicious cultural themes, alongside lightweight items such as one-gram “golden beans”, have emerged as standout best-sellers during the holiday. Domestic travel spending on major platforms increased 4.5% year-on-year during the first three days of the Spring Festival holiday, while car rentals jumped 26%, the China Daily reports.
