China: consumption resumes in a post-Covid country
Employees of an automobile factory in Shanghai, China.
REUTERS / Aly Song
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
This is a first this year since the start of the epidemic: consumption in China is on the rise.
Retail sales increased 0.5% in August year on year.
This renewed consumer confidence shows that the recovery in economic activity is continuing.
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China, where the Covid-19 was spotted in December before spreading to the rest of the world, is the first country to have relaunched its activity and it appears as such as a barometer.
"
The figures for the month of August even show that this recovery seems to be gaining in force, to spread, that a return to normal is completed in a large part of the sectors, in particular in industry
", analyzes Christine Peltier, economist at BNP Paris down and specialist in China.
►Also read: China returns to growth, but precariousness threatens its economy
In August, retail sales rose 0.5% year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics (SNB) announced on Tuesday.
For Christine Peltier, “
this rebound of 0.5
% year-on-year is the first positive figure
.
These are sales that are driven by sales of automobiles or other consumer goods
.
"
This key indicator of consumption plunged at the start of the year at the height of the epidemic, with -20.5% over one year in January and February.
And it had always shown in decline, although more moderately in recent months (-1.1% in July).
Hesitant consumers
Consumers were still hesitant to resume normal lives, despite a marked improvement in the country on the epidemic front.
China only reported eight new cases of Covid-19 on its soil on Tuesday, September 16.
"
The recovery in activity in services has been slower because household consumption, which underpins the development of the service sector to a large extent, has recovered more slowly since the end of the lockdown,
" said Christine. Peltier.
To encourage consumption and
ultimately
support employment, many provinces or municipalities have launched commercial operations in recent months using vouchers or reductions.
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