China News Service, May 19, according to the Ministry of Commerce website, on May 19, the head of the Consumer Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced the operation of the Chinese consumer market from January to April 2020. The person in charge pointed out that the resumption of business and the resumption of the market continued to accelerate, and the order of production and life was gradually restored. In April, the Chinese consumer market showed an accelerated recovery.
Affected by the new Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, the total retail sales of consumer goods in January-April were 10.68 trillion yuan, down 16.2% year-on-year. The main features are as follows:
First, the decline in consumption has further narrowed. In April, the total retail sales of social consumer goods nationwide was 2.82 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.5%, a decrease of 8.3 percentage points from the previous month and 13 percentage points from January to February. From January to April, the total retail sales of consumer goods fell by 2.8 percentage points from the first quarter and by 4.3 percentage points from January to February.
Second, online growth has further increased. From January to April, the online retail sales of physical goods nationwide was 2.56 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.6% year-on-year, an increase of 2.7 percentage points faster than the first quarter; it accounted for 24.1% of the total retail sales of social consumer goods, an increase of 0.5% from the first quarter and the same period last year. 5.5 percentage points. The national online retail sales amounted to 2.59 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.7%, and an increase of 2.5 percentage points from the first quarter.
Third, sales of key commodities rebounded further. The basic necessities of residents such as food and medicine grew rapidly. In April, grain, oil, food and Chinese and Western medicine products increased by 18.2% and 8.6% year-on-year respectively. The sales of upgraded durable consumer goods, such as automobiles and telecommunications, which have frozen in the early period, rebounded significantly. Sales were flat and up 12.2% year-on-year, respectively, up 18.1 and 5.7 percentage points from the previous month. The sales of home appliances and furniture products decreased by 8.5% and 5.4% respectively year-on-year, and rose by 21.2 and 17.3 percentage points respectively.
Fourth, service consumption has picked up further. In April, the national catering revenue was 230.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 31.1%, a decrease of 15.7 percentage points from the previous month. The business activity index of the catering industry rose to more than 60.0%, which was more than 10 percentage points higher than that of the previous month, which was obviously warmer.
Fifth, the price increase further declined. In April, national consumer prices rose by 3.3% year-on-year, a decrease of 1 percentage point from the previous month. Among them, the prices of consumer goods and services rose by 4.7% and 0.9% year-on-year, respectively, and the growth rate fell by 1.5 and 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. Pork prices have fallen for 12 consecutive weeks, up 96.9% year-on-year, and the increase has dropped by 19.5 percentage points.
The person in charge said that China has an ultra-large-scale market advantage and internal potential, and the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic on the domestic consumer market is periodic. With the gradual advancement of resumption of production and production, the order of production and life is gradually returning to normal, and domestic consumption will continue to maintain a steady recovery momentum. In the next step, under the premise of doing a good job in the prevention and control of normalized epidemic situation, the Ministry of Commerce will further accelerate the resumption of businesses and markets in various shopping malls, markets and life service industries, accelerate the implementation of the various consumer promotion policies and measures that have been introduced, and actively promote consumer replenishment And potential release.