(Fighting new crown pneumonia) China's economic war "epidemic" record: stimulate consumption to compensate many governments to spread "red envelope rain"

China News Agency, Beijing, April 3 (Reporter Chen Su) Cash coupons, cashback, discounts, shopping festivals ... These words that were only seen by merchants are increasingly appearing in government documents across China. in. April has arrived, and various Chinese holidays are coming soon. Various places have intensified the introduction of various consumer stimulus measures, hoping to make up for the impact of the impact of the epidemic.

Red envelope one: billions of consumer coupons

For more than a month, with the gradual control of the epidemic in China, many governments have begun to issue consumer "red envelopes"-consumer coupons. Statistics show that nearly 20 provinces and cities have issued a total of more than 4 billion yuan (RMB, the same below) of consumer vouchers, and the number of places to issue consumer vouchers continues to increase.

It is understood that these consumer vouchers are mainly focused on catering and tourism, and are focused on promoting the recovery of industry consumption that has been hit hard by the epidemic.

Take Li Xunlei, chief economist of Zhongtai Securities, as an example of Hangzhou after the subprime mortgage crisis. After January 2009, Hangzhou issued 1.05 billion yuan of consumer coupons. By estimation, the total nominal value of Hangzhou ’s 2009 annual total was zero. With an increase of about 15.5 billion yuan, the leverage effect that drives retail sales of consumer goods is about 15 times.

Zhao Ping, director of the International Trade Research Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that consumer subsidy policies will generally lead to a new high in consumption growth in the short term, especially in the areas supported by consumer coupons, which will see rapid consumption growth in the short term.

Baidu search big data shows that in the past month, the search for "consumer coupons" has climbed 876%, showing the degree to which Chinese netizens look forward to relevant policies.

Red envelope two: many measures to encourage the purchase of cars

According to the data of the Automobile Association, automobile sales in February 2020 decreased by 79.1% year-on-year, of which passenger vehicle sales decreased by 81.7% year-on-year, and new energy vehicle sales decreased by 75.2% year-on-year.

At present, the automobile category is still the largest retail consumer category in China. Therefore, promoting residents to buy a car has become the main point of stimulating consumption policies in various places.

Various local policies to stimulate automobile consumption include: providing subsidies for consumers to purchase cars, reducing vehicle purchase taxes, increasing vehicle license targets, accelerating the elimination of old cars, and preferential trade-in support. According to statistics, the amount of subsidies provided by various places ranges from 1,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan. In addition, Hangzhou has clearly added 20,000 passenger car indicators, and Guangzhou stated that it will launch new indicators.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that there will be more policies to stimulate automobile consumption in the future.

Red envelope three: Creating conditions to encourage tourism

The "Basic Situation of the Tourism Market in 2019" shows that the comprehensive contribution of China's tourism to GDP (gross domestic product) in 2019 accounts for 11.05% of the total GDP, and the direct and indirect employment of tourism accounts for 10.31% of the country.

Tourism is increasingly important to China's economy, and it is also one of the industries most affected by the epidemic. In February, the China Tourism Academy predicted that domestic tourism revenue would be reduced by 1.18 trillion yuan in 2020.

In addition to issuing tourist coupons for tourists, various regions have also introduced policies such as 2.5-day flexible vacations and discounts on scenic area tickets to boost tourism consumption. For example, Jiangxi Province, Longnan City, Gansu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Hebei Province have proposed 2.5-day flexible work schedules. Hainan Department of Commerce recently stated that it is planning to further open up the island's tax-free policy to stimulate tourism consumption.

Liu Xiangdong, deputy director of the Economic Research Department of the China International Economic Exchange Center, said that outbound tourism is currently affected by overseas epidemics, and domestic residents ’demand for outdoor tourism is relatively rigid. If domestic tourism implements policies such as low prices, it will be stimulated by policies such as paid vacations. It can actively promote the recovery and development of tourism consumption, and then drive the aviation, catering, hotels, and scenic spots to basically recover in the peak tourist season in the third quarter of this year.

"Thirty-six measures" to promote consumption

In addition to the above-mentioned main measures, there are also some regions that are focusing on key industries, key consumption types, and important time nodes, as well as local leaders who take the initiative to personally drive consumption.

Li Xunlei said that under the circumstances of economic slowdown and sharp decline in demand, various regions have introduced stimulus policies to promote consumer replenishment. The main reason is that compared with investment, consumption has achieved faster results, which can drive consumption as soon as possible, activate the market, and promote people flow and logistics. fluidity.

Liu Xiangdong reminded that the current expansion of consumption is still faced with problems such as the ability of residents to consume or decline. Under the influence of the epidemic, especially the spread of overseas epidemics has increased external uncertainties, the stability of residents' disposable income has been challenged, and the willingness to invest and save will increase, which will curb consumption. In the long run, efforts should be made to stabilize employment and raise residents' income expectations. (Finish)