News 1+1丨Chinese New Year on the spot = spend money on the spot?

　　According to statistics, in 2021, more than 100 million people across the country will "Celebrate the New Year in situ". "Celebrating the New Year in situ" is not only a new experience, but also gave birth to many new consumption phenomena.

Shopping, catering, nearby leisure travel, cultural consumption, etc., this Spring Festival, people everywhere are enthusiastic about consumption, and according to the monitoring data of the Ministry of Commerce, consumption performance during the Spring Festival is also very good.

How to treat the consumption data reflected in this year's Spring Festival?

　　"News 1+1" connects with Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China International Economic Exchange Center, with common concern: Chinese New Year on the spot = spending money on the spot?

How do you think this year's Spring Festival consumption is a positive increase compared with 2019?

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China International Economic Exchange Center:

This is a very good growth rate. Compared with the global Christmas consumption, it can maintain a positive growth. Compared with 2019, it can maintain a growth rate of 4.9%. good achievement.

At Christmas at the end of December last year, most countries had negative growth in their consumption during the Golden Week.

From this perspective, it is commendable for China to recover from the once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic during the Spring Festival Golden Week just past.

This year's Spring Festival consumption data is increasing. Is it a price increase factor?

Or is demand growing rapidly?

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of China International Economic Exchange Center:

The Spring Festival Golden Week that just passed was not only a special Spring Festival, but also a normal Spring Festival.

There are some special points. For example, the box office of movie theaters during Golden Week hit a record high. Many friends said that movie theater ticket prices have risen sharply. One of the most important reasons is the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic, the control of the number of people in each theater, and the number of seats between seats. Safety intervals have higher requirements.

From this perspective, many price increases are caused by the new crown epidemic.

On the other hand, some new characteristics have appeared in consumption, so the prices of many new consumptions are relatively good.

During the Spring Festival, new types of consumption performed well. What do the new changes mean?

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China International Economic Exchange Center:

The Golden Week of the Spring Festival in 2021, in my opinion, is the beginning of a new 30 years. In the future, meeting people’s growing needs for a better life will be a leading consumer new trend.

We can see that whether it is the people born in the 50s and 60s who have entered the aging society, the social backbone of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, or the new generations of the 95s, 00s, and 10s, they are in Consumption during the Spring Festival, on the one hand, is to show filial piety to the elderly and parents. On the other hand, their need for artificial intelligence such as window cleaning robots and sweeping robots actually represents the new needs of the new generation for a better life.

While the Chinese New Year consumption data is gratifying, should we be cautious?

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China International Economic Exchange Center:

At present, consumption is still a weak link for economic growth, especially for the recovery under the influence of the new crown epidemic last year.

In the next step, how to make good use of the first driving force in the troika-consumption, we need to do more work.

It can be seen from this Golden Week that consumption hotspots, which have a greater impact on the economy and rapid growth, are mainly reflected in the fields of health, medicine, artificial intelligence, tourism and new energy vehicles.

What else do we need to do to stimulate consumption?

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China International Economic Exchange Center:

How to truly make consumption the first driving force for high-quality economic development?

We still have a lot of work to do, and we need to work harder on demand-side management and supply-side reform.

The first aspect is how to increase the proportion of consumption in GDP?

The second aspect is how to solve the worries of ordinary people's consumption?

The third aspect is the new demand and pain points of the new generation after 1995, which requires us to further promote innovation-driven.

Will Chinese New Year in situ trigger an in-situ economic start?

Bai Yansong:

We have been talking about celebrating the New Year on the spot, but we didn’t expect to spend money on spot so hard.

There may also be a hidden advantage in celebrating the New Year in situ. After the new year, the Chinese economy will start in situ. In previous years, there will be labor shortages, labor shortages, etc. after the new year. There is a slow start-up process.

Will this year lead to a rapid start due to the on-site Chinese New Year, and China’s GDP growth rate may be better than expected?

Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China International Economic Exchange Center:

This is very important. The local Chinese New Year will bring about a full recovery of the economy after the holiday. This is a very gratifying new phenomenon that will drive China's economy in the next 30 years.