In response to the decline in domestic consumption data brought about by the new Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, since March, the country has begun to issue consumer vouchers. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 50 cities have introduced consumer voucher policies. At present, the effects of some city policies on the issuance of consumer vouchers have already emerged, and the overall effect of consumer vouchers in stimulating consumption is good. Experts suggest that the issuance of consumer vouchers should accurately focus on key industries and key areas, and make reasonable planning and arrangements based on local actual conditions.
Distribute consumer vouchers more frequently to stimulate residents' desire to buy
Recently, the new coronary pneumonia epidemic has caused domestic consumption data to decline. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that from January to February, total retail sales of consumer goods fell by 20.5% year-on-year. Among them, catering revenue decreased by 43.1% year-on-year, automobile sales decreased by 37% year-on-year, and home appliances decreased by 30%.
In order to promote consumption replenishment and potential release, some places have successively introduced policies and measures to expand consumption, and issuance of consumer coupons is one of the measures. According to incomplete statistics, as of April 8, nearly 50 cities in 16 provinces and municipalities across the country have introduced consumer voucher policies ranging from several million yuan to hundreds of millions of yuan.
As a special voucher or payment voucher issued during a special period, consumer vouchers can boost consumption by increasing people's purchasing power and consumption desire, thereby driving production and investment growth and accelerating economic recovery.
"Consumer coupons stimulate consumption and release consumer demand through subsidies." Zhao Ping, director of the International Trade Research Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that from past experience, in the areas supported by consumer coupons, there will be rapid growth in consumption in the short term.
As early as March 2nd, Jinan City launched Huimin consumption activities, launching 20 million yuan worth of vouchers for scenic spots, travel agencies, theaters, performing arts venues, bookstores, etc., to stimulate cultural tourism consumption. Subsequently, Liaoning Province encouraged the issuance of Huimin culture and tourism consumption vouchers to the public; Zhejiang Province launched cultural travel consumption vouchers with a total price of 1 billion yuan; Hebei Province arranged a special fund of 15 million yuan to implement a sports consumption voucher subsidy policy.
With the intensive issuance of consumer vouchers in various places, its scope of application, issuance method and issuance target are also "full bloom", each with its own characteristics. The consumption vouchers with a total amount of 318 million yuan in Nanjing mainly involve catering, sports, books, rural tourism and other fields, benefiting the general public including those in need; Ningbo provides concessions by issuing consumer vouchers, vouchers, coupons, etc. jointly or independently The mode of making profits to consumers is about 20 billion yuan; Guangzhou has allocated 300 million yuan of financial funds to promote the recovery of the cultural and tourism industry; Hangzhou opened the "double carnival" of consumer coupons from April 3 to May 31; Shaoxing, Foshan Use big data to adjust the category and amount of consumption coupons in real time to achieve "precision delivery" ...
According to statistics, in nearly 50 cities currently issuing consumer vouchers, more than 80% of consumer vouchers involve the catering industry, followed by tourism, accounting for 42.5%. In addition, retail, accommodation, sports, etc. are also key industries in this round of consumer coupon boom.
It is not the first time in China to issue consumer coupons. After the international financial crisis in 2008, some local governments have issued policies to issue consumption vouchers to groups in need, stimulating residents' consumption.
Four to two thousand pounds pays off, initial results show signs of speeding up economic recovery
Under the superimposition of consumer coupons and merchants ’own marketing activities, people ’s enthusiasm for consumption has been mobilized. Data released by various governments show that during the Qingming period, the "long holiday economy" was superimposed, and cities that issued consumer coupons through platforms such as Alipay have already shown a "multiplier effect" of consumption.
On March 27, the Hangzhou Municipal Government of Zhejiang Province issued consumption vouchers to personnel in Hangzhou. According to the statistics of the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, 56 hours after the local issuance of consumer vouchers, the consumption was 453 million yuan, and the government subsidy was paid 28.93 million yuan at the same time, and the pulling effect reached 15 times.
The Zhengzhou Municipal Government issued the first phase of RMB 50 million inclusive consumer coupons on April 3. During the Qingming holiday, nearly 100,000 merchants in Zhengzhou participated in the first batch of consumer voucher activities issued by Zhengzhou. About 680,000 consumers participated in the event, a total of 820,000 write-offs were written off, and the write-off amount was 14.27 million yuan. 100 million yuan, the pulling effect reached 13 times.
Wuhan is an important production base of Golden Throat Throat. Affected by the epidemic, Golden Throat Throat lost one-third of its online sales. "Thanks to the activity of issuing consumer vouchers in Guangxi, in just a few days, our online sales volume has tripled compared to the period of the epidemic," said a person in charge of the company.
According to data provided by Alipay, over 10 million offline merchants nationwide have benefited from consumer coupons, of which more than 90% are small, medium and micro merchants. The owner of a noodle shop in Zhengzhou said in an interview that they had written off more than 3,000 consumer coupons during the three days of the Qingming holiday. He said: "Many people who spend at the store have consumer coupons. Consumer coupons save customers money. The business is also booming than usual. "" After the consumption vouchers were issued, the turnover in our shop increased by a maximum of 1,000 yuan a day. "Zhang Zelin, the owner of a meat-bread shop in Hangzhou, said that since the issuance of consumption vouchers, the flow of people in the store has been obvious. More.
"The epidemic has a great impact on the economy, employment, and income. On the one hand, the issuance of consumer coupons can stabilize basic people's livelihood and ensure the basic level of people's livelihood; on the other hand, it can stabilize the income end of small and medium-sized enterprises and avoid serial failures. The development of storage strength. In addition, this approach can also achieve economic recovery, and stimulate the economic cycle of manufacturers with basic consumption. "Wang Qiang, associate professor of Renmin University of China Business School, said in an interview with the media.
Weng Yi, a senior researcher at the Digital Economy Think Tank, believes that consumer vouchers have fully released suppressed consumer demand. At the same time, consumer coupons in the digital age can be more accurately placed in industries that the government wants to support, and play a role of “four or two pounds” through high leverage.
It is not appropriate to hurry to follow the trend
As a special voucher and a tool of economic policy, consumer vouchers are a powerful means of coping with the epidemic situation and promoting the expansion and upgrading of domestic consumption in the current situation. However, analysts also pointed out that the issuance of consumer vouchers must accurately focus on key industries and key areas, and it must also be based on local realities including the severity of the epidemic, the level of fiscal revenue and expenditure, the speed of recovery of the consumer market, and consumer confidence. And arrangements, it is not appropriate to hurry to "spread money". Only accurate positioning of companies affected by the epidemic, positioning of areas with insufficient consumer confidence, and positioning of industries with insignificant signs of recovery can play the role of "small horse-drawn carts" for consumer vouchers.
"During the epidemic prevention and control period, local governments have increased expenditures and reduced revenues. The issuance of consumer coupons will, to a certain extent, put pressure on the finances. Local governments need to consider the scale of consumer coupons issuance and financial affordability to achieve local conditions." Zhao Ping accepted The media said in an interview, "In the central and western regions, especially where the financial revenue is difficult, it is not suitable to use the method of issuing consumer coupons."
The consumption coupon issuance model and source channels also require active innovation in all regions. For example, of the 1.68 billion yuan consumer coupons issued by Hangzhou, only 500 million yuan was issued by the government, and the remaining 1.18 billion yuan was matched by merchants, which not only stimulated business vitality, but also reduced the government's burden.
Wang Qiang said that in the short term, the effect of issuing consumer coupons to stimulate economic growth is more obvious. However, as a special policy to deal with the crisis, it should not be issued for a long time. It should be adjusted according to the epidemic situation and the progress of the national economic recovery, give reasonable and stable expectations for the whole society, and achieve stable effects on consumption and the economy.
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Cooperate with platform companies to accurately evaluate the distribution effect
In this round of issuance of consumer vouchers, most local governments have chosen to cooperate with platform companies and have initially achieved good results.
Regarding the benefits of cooperation between local governments and platforms, Zhu Keli, executive dean of the National Research Institute of New Economy, believes that issuing consumer vouchers through the platform can eliminate some drawbacks. In the past, paper consumer coupons not only issued low efficiency and low matching degree, but also caused some moral hazards. By combining with the platform, you can use big data to improve efficiency and accuracy, and minimize these drawbacks.
The consumption coupons are issued through platform enterprises, and there is more room for realization. Ma Liang, assistant dean of the National Development and Strategy Research Institute of Renmin University of China, believes that on the one hand, the platform has the advantages of big data and algorithm support, which can track the time, place and method of consumption coupons in real time, and the government can continuously optimize and adjust policies . On the other hand, the government can hand over the task of stimulating consumption to the platform. The platform can design different consumption coupon usage schemes, and at the same time it is convenient for the government to more accurately evaluate the effect of policy implementation.
The issuance of consumer coupons through the platform has many advantages, so how to ensure fair competition between the platforms and form a benign government-enterprise cooperation?
In this regard, Huang Jin, deputy director of the Competition Law Center of the Institute of International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the issuance of consumer vouchers is a fiscal expenditure, which is actually a kind of subsidy. As a government subsidy, policy implementation must be legal and compliant, and attention must be paid to maintaining fair competition in the market. When using a platform for distribution, you cannot arbitrarily designate which platform will do this; you cannot only work with some large platforms, you must also consider small and medium-sized platforms, and policy-making must consider coverage and the breadth of benefits.