China News Agency, Haikou, July 27th: What are the challenges facing China's continued consumption growth?
How to stabilize expectations?
China News Agency reporter Yin Haiming
In June this year, China's total retail sales of consumer goods turned from negative to positive after three months of negative growth, showing signs of recovery.
Many experts who are participating in the second China Consumption Forum in Haikou said that in the future, China's consumption will continue to face many challenges, but the trend of China's consumption structure upgrade has not changed.
As the world's second largest consumer country, China's consumption problem is also a world problem.
What new challenges will China's consumption growth face?
How to stabilize consumption expectations?
Chi Fulin, director of the China (Hainan) Reform and Development Research Institute, said that currently, affected by various factors such as the impact of the epidemic, consumer confidence, consumption propensity, and consumption willingness are showing a "three decline" trend.
Xia Deren, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said that in general, China's total consumption has grown significantly in recent years, and the consumption structure has undergone major changes. However, compared with the requirements for promoting high-quality economic development, there is still an economy of consumption development. The foundation is not very solid, the epidemic situation is frequent and unstable, the consumption structure upgrade lacks sufficient motivation, and the external environment is not perfect.
Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said that under the new situation, consumption growth is facing new challenges in many aspects, including stagnation of globalization, shrinking supply chains, adjustment of trade and investment, an aging society, and intensified conflict and confrontation.
How to stabilize consumption expectations at present?
Chi Fulin said that stabilizing consumption lies in stabilizing consumption expectations.
Stabilizing consumption expectations focuses on structural policy adjustments, stabilizing enterprises and stabilizing employment.
It is necessary to improve consumption expectations as the focus of stabilizing the overall economic market, increase structural policy adjustments focusing on stabilizing market players, and introduce a package of measures to stabilize consumption expectations as soon as possible.
For example, optimizing some existing policies to support consumption, intensifying public consumption policies, and accelerating digital consumption.
Cao Yuanzheng, chairman of BOC International Research Co., Ltd., believes that to stabilize consumption expectations, anticipation management policies are needed.
First, the employment stabilization policy can stabilize income, which is the basis for consumption growth.
Secondly, in the context of the upgrading of consumption structure, new policies with adaptability are needed.
While meeting old consumption expectations, create new consumption expectations.
Third, under the new consumption trend, consumption is not a single economic issue, but a complex economic and social issue that requires a package of policies.
Xia Deren suggested taking effective measures to stabilize consumption expectations, including further coordinating epidemic prevention and control and social development, reducing the impact on business operations and life, improving the social assistance system, and restoring consumer confidence.
Wang Yiming, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, suggested that the development of service consumption should be accelerated to promote the upgrading of consumption structure.
He said that China's service consumption is showing three major trends: accelerating digitalization, accelerating high-end development, and younger consumers, which is a new engine for expanding consumption.
To promote the expansion of service consumption, it is necessary to tap the potential of the service consumption market, expand the middle-income group, and at the same time encourage holiday consumption and nighttime economic development; expand the supply of service industries, improve service industry standards and consumer rights protection systems; promote digital transformation of different sub-sectors ; The government increases consumption expenditure on public services; better play the demonstration role of the reform and innovation of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
The report "Current Situation and Trends of China's Consumption Structure Upgrade" released at the forum pointed out that in 2021, the trend of China's consumption structure upgrade has not changed, service-oriented consumption has achieved a "double recovery", the contribution rate to economic growth has increased, and cultural consumption , health consumption, and information consumption still maintain double-digit growth, new consumption highlights such as green consumption are more prominent, and the return of service-oriented consumption has achieved initial results.
Chi Fulin said that the upgrading of the consumption structure of Chinese urban and rural residents is still a major trend.
The consumption structure of 1.4 billion people is being upgraded from material consumption to service consumption.
Despite the severe impact of the epidemic in the short term, in the next 5 to 10 years, China's R&D-focused producer service industry and the consumer service industry that meet people's aspirations for a better life are still developing rapidly, with huge market potential.
(Finish)