Commerce Minister: Govt to roll out policies to boost social consumption

Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said on Saturday during a media conference that a slew of measures will be taken this year to boost China's social consumption, such as improving urban consumption, to promote consumption upgrades, expand rural consumption, and develop service consumption while optimizing service supply.

The country will upgrade a number of pedestrian streets, optimize the layout of convenience stores, and encourage brand development and franchising.

The country will promote "selling agricultural products to the cities, while selling industrial products to the countryside".

The nation will also promote service consumption and optimize service supply, especially in weak areas such as senior services and housekeeping services.

Zhong also said China's total social consumption in 2018 reached 38.1 trillion yuan, up 9 percent year-on-year.

Despite the year-on-year growth rate dropping by 1.2 percentage points, the increased social consumption reached 3.2 trillion yuan, equivalent to the total amount of social consumption in 1998, according to Zhong.

Consumption contributed 76.2 percent of last year's economic growth, he said.

Social consumption structure is continuously optimizing, he said, adding service consumption grew faster than commodity consumption, rural consumption grew faster than urban consumption, and the quality of consumption has been further improved, with personalized, diversified and customized consumption becoming a trend.