China News Service, March 16th. According to the website of the Ministry of Commerce, in response to the situation of my country’s consumer market from January to February this year, the person in charge of the Consumer Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce pointed out that the consumer market showed a recovery growth in January and February, achieving a good start. The rapid development of new types of consumption, the active local leisure consumption, and the steady decline of consumer prices.

Data map: People buy goods in a supermarket.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Zhongjun

　　The person in charge said that since this year, the competent commercial departments at all levels have resolutely implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, firmly implemented the strategy of expanding domestic demand, conscientiously implemented various policies and measures to promote consumption, innovated and carried out various activities to promote consumption, and did a solid job. To ensure the livelihood of the masses during the New Year, multiple measures are taken to promote consumption, and the service builds a new development pattern.

　　Commodity consumption has grown rapidly.

From January to February, the retail sales of goods increased by 30.7% year-on-year and 7.7% year-on-year.

Among them, the retail sales of communications equipment of units above designated size increased by more than 20% over the same period in 2019, and the retail sales of cosmetics, gold, silver and jewelry, and automobiles increased by more than 10% over the same period in 2019.

During the Golden Week of the Spring Festival, sales of green and healthy products such as sterilization and disinfection appliances and sports fitness equipment on some e-commerce platforms increased by more than 80% year-on-year; the sales of duty-free shops in Hainan Islands exceeded 1.5 billion yuan, which was double that of the 2019 Spring Festival.

　　The rapid development of new types of consumption.

In order to facilitate the people to purchase New Year's goods, the Ministry of Commerce and relevant departments held an online New Year's Day Festival (January 20-February 18), during which the national online retail sales reached 905.76 billion yuan.

From January to February, the national online retail sales of physical goods increased by 30.6% year-on-year, accounting for 20.7% of the total retail sales.

It has become fashionable for staff in the field to exchange special products for the New Year with their relatives in their hometowns. From January to February, the volume of express delivery services across the country doubled year-on-year.

　　Food and beverage consumption has recovered steadily.

On the basis of prevention and control of the epidemic, the majority of catering companies have enriched and upgraded their dishes, innovated online and offline business models, and strived to provide consumers with safe, high-quality, and diverse catering services.

From January to February, catering revenue increased by 68.9% year-on-year, returning to approximately 96% in the same period in 2019.

The sales of New Year’s Eve dinner set meals and semi-finished New Year’s Eve dinners were booming, and the sales of the New Year’s Eve dinner on the Spring Festival Golden Week takeaway platform increased by nearly 80% year-on-year.

　　Local leisure consumption is active.

During the Spring Festival, the consumption of accommodation in the suburbs of Beijing, Shanghai and other cities increased by more than 2 times compared with the same period of the previous year.

The movie market is booming. The box office of the Spring Festival Golden Week movie reached 7.8 billion yuan, setting a record for the same period in history. The box office of movies from January to February increased by more than 7% over the same period in 2019.

　　Consumer prices are stable and fall.

From January to February, consumer prices fell by 0.3% year-on-year, of which food prices rose by 0.7% and non-food prices fell by 0.5%.

The production of live pigs has gradually recovered, the reserve meat has been put in orderly, and the high price of pork has dropped.

Since December last year, the Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with relevant departments, has organized a central reserve of 140,000 tons of pork; pork prices in February fell by 3.1% month-on-month and 14.9% year-on-year.

　　The person in charge said that in the first two months of this year, the consumer market continued its upward trend since the fourth quarter of last year. Due to the low base last year, the total amount of social retail showed a substantial increase.

However, due to the impact of the epidemic, circulation companies, especially small, medium and micro enterprises, still have many operational difficulties, and residents' consumption is still restricted, and efforts to promote consumption still need to be stepped up.

With the steady improvement of my country's epidemic prevention and control situation and the implementation of various policies and measures, it is expected that the consumer market will continue to show a recovery growth trend in the later period.