The consumption potential of Chinese residents is still huge, and it is realistic to form a new consumption hotspot.

However, the release of consumption potential still faces many challenges.

This requires implementing the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference, firmly implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand, and taking active measures to effectively respond to the challenge of shrinking demand.

　　Consumption is an important driving force for the smooth operation of my country's economy.

As a traditional peak consumption season, consumption during the Spring Festival holiday in 2022 has many bright spots, showing a trend of continuous recovery.

At the same time, it is also necessary to take positive measures to effectively activate and release the potential consumption power of more than 1.4 billion people, promote consumption upgrades, and promote stable and healthy economic development.

　　There are many bright spots in consumption during the Spring Festival holiday in 2022.

For example, the driving effect of the Beijing Winter Olympics is obvious, and ice and snow consumption, a new area of ​​consumption upgrading, is growing rapidly.

Data show that from the Lunar New Year's Eve to the fourth day of the first lunar month, Tmall ski equipment sales increased by more than 180% year-on-year, and ice sports categories increased by more than 300% year-on-year.

Another example is the rapid growth of duty-free shopping.

Taking Hainan as an example, from January 30 to February 5, the total sales of the 10 duty-free shops on outlying islands in Hainan reached 1.983 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 144%.

The relevant consumption situation during the Spring Festival holiday reflects the continuous recovery of consumption, and the consumption upgrade is still in progress.

　　It should also be noted that the recovery of consumption in some aspects still needs to continue to exert efforts.

For example, in terms of tourism consumption, according to the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of domestic tourist trips during the Spring Festival holiday decreased by 2.0% year-on-year, and recovered to 73.9% of the 2019 Spring Festival holiday on a comparable basis; domestic tourism revenue decreased by 3.9% year-on-year, returning to 56.3% of the same period during the Spring Festival holiday in 2019.

It should be said that both recovery rates are relatively low.

In terms of tourism structure, the tourism market is still dominated by local tourism and short-distance tourism, and the proportion of intra-provincial and inter-provincial tourism is 78.3% and 21.7% respectively.

For another example, in terms of payment transactions on the online platform, the data shows that from January 31 to February 6, the national non-cash payment business volume and amount increased by 10.0% and 16.2% year-on-year respectively, continuing the continuous decline in major festivals since the Spring Festival in 2021. the trend of.

　　Judging from the characteristics of consumption during the Spring Festival in the Year of the Tiger, on the one hand, the consumption potential of Chinese residents is still huge, and it is realistic to form a new consumption hotspot; on the other hand, the release of consumption potential still faces many challenges.

This requires implementing the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference, firmly implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand, and taking active measures to effectively respond to the challenge of shrinking demand.

　　The first is to coordinate the promotion of the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and economic and social development, and try to minimize the impact of the epidemic on consumption.

Judging from the actual situation, this year's overall more relaxed policy of returning home has promoted the recovery of population mobility and consumption during the Spring Festival holiday.

While adhering to the "dynamic clearing", it is necessary to pay more attention to the precise prevention and control of the epidemic, reduce the impact on the service-oriented consumption characterized by agglomeration and contact, and also reduce the scale of residents' precautionary savings.

　　The second is to cultivate and encourage the development of new types of consumption such as ice and snow consumption.

At present, my country's consumption of "people, goods, and markets" is in the process of rapid upgrading, which contains huge new consumption potential, including the formation of new consumption and the upgrading of traditional consumption.

For example, the ice and snow sports and related consumption brought about by the Beijing Winter Olympics have brought an important driving effect to the catering, tourism, accommodation and other industries.

Taking advantage of similar east winds, increase policy support, promote the normalization and popularization of new consumption such as ice and snow consumption, and promote the rapid repair and continuous upgrading of the consumption structure.

In this regard, it is necessary to focus on grasping the trend of the integration of digital technology and physical industries, to bring more new consumption experiences to consumers, and to promote the formation of new industries.

　　The third is to increase infrastructure construction for new consumption.

Focusing on the cultivation and expansion of medium- and long-term consumption hotspots, focusing on infrastructure that adapts to service-oriented consumption, we will invest in infrastructure construction in a moderately advanced manner.

The so-called moderate advance is to moderately increase the speed in time and moderately expand in scale.

For example, while promoting the construction of charging piles in urban areas, it is also necessary to accelerate the construction of charging piles in rural areas, solve the problem of inconvenient charging of new energy vehicles in rural areas, and help new energy vehicles go to the countryside.

In this way, it can not only expand effective investment, but also form an important basis for consumption release.

　　(Source of this article: Economic Daily Author: Kuang Xianming, researcher at the Economic Research Center of China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute)