China to improve consumption tracking with strengthened statistics work

BEIJING - China will improve its tracking of consumption market dynamics amid efforts to foster a robust domestic market, according to a national statistics conference which concluded on Thursday.

At the conference, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that it will strengthen its statistical monitoring of new consumption models, emerging business forms and changes in consumption structure. Efforts will include strengthening the measurement of regional services sales and refining the measurement of online services sales.

The NBS said it will enhance its data estimation, and optimize its methods of measuring total sales of goods and services. It will pay particular attention to improving its statistical monitoring of the services consumption market to reflect market trends more accurately.

The expansion of domestic demand will top China's major economic priorities for 2026, according to the Central Economic Work Conference last month, which also outlined plans to implement consumption-boosting campaigns, and to increase the incomes of the country's urban and rural residents. The meeting also called for efforts to promote services consumption.

China recently released a plan to accelerate the cultivation of new services consumption growth drivers, aiming to improve and expand the supply of services, and to improve the quality of services consumption. The plan covers key sectors such as transportation services, domestic services, online audiovisual services, tourism services, the automotive aftermarket and inbound consumption.