On April 20, the head of the Consumer Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced the operation of China’s consumer market in the first quarter of 2020.
The person in charge of the Department of Consumer Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce stated that as the domestic epidemic prevention and control achieved important and periodic results, the economic and social order accelerated, the recovery of commercial and trade circulation continued to improve, and the consumer market in March tended to be active, sales stabilized and prices rose Steady decline. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, market consumption declined significantly in the first quarter of 2020, and the country’s total retail sales of consumer goods reached 7.86 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 19.0%.
The decline in consumption has gradually narrowed. In March, the total retail sales of social consumer goods fell by 15.8% year-on-year, a decrease of 4.7 percentage points from January-February; the retail sales of commodities fell by 12.0%, a decrease of 5.6 percentage points from January-February. The decline in total retail sales of consumer goods in urban and rural areas narrowed by 4.8 and 3.9 percentage points respectively.
Online consumption grew steadily. From January to March, the online retail sales of physical goods increased by 5.9% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 2.9 percentage points faster than that of January-February, accounting for 23.6% of the total social zero, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from January-February. Online retail sales in March increased by about 10% year-on-year.
Consumption of necessities showed a rigid growth. In March, residents’ basic necessities commodities accelerated, and grain, oil, food, beverage, and Chinese and western medicine commodities increased by 19.2%, 6.3%, and 8.0%, respectively, 9.5, 3.2, and 7.8 percentage points faster than in January-February.
Sales of key commodities rebounded. In March, the decline in durable consumer goods was significantly narrowed. The decline in automobiles, construction and decoration materials, and furniture commodities narrowed by 18.9, 16.6, and 10.8 percentage points, respectively. The sales of daily necessities of daily life and work increased from lower to higher, and the sales of communications equipment, cultural office supplies and daily-use goods increased by 6.5%, 6.1% and 0.3% respectively.
It is worth noting that the increase in the price level fell back, and the overall price level in the country changed from rising to falling. In March, the CPI changed from a 0.8% increase in February to a 1.2% decrease, and a 4.3% increase year-on-year, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from the previous month, the lowest since November 2019; pork prices fell for 7 consecutive weeks, last week (4 June 6-12) The average wholesale price of white striped pigs in 36 large and medium-sized cities monitored by the Ministry of Commerce has basically dropped to the level at the beginning of this year.
The head of the Consumer Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce said that since the outbreak, the Chinese consumer market has shown strong resilience, vitality and new growth points. New types of consumption and upgraded consumption are constantly expanding. New consumption models such as contactless distribution, unmanned retail, and live broadcast sales are developing rapidly. Information consumption, artificial intelligence, “Internet + medical, health, health” and other consumption have grown significantly. Overall, the epidemic has a greater impact on consumption in the short term, and the impact in the medium term is flat. As a series of policies and measures issued by the state and localities take effect, residents’ confidence in consumption gradually recovers, and consumption will recover steadily in the later period. The epidemic situation will not change the development trend of China’s long-term stable consumption and continuous upgrade.