CCTV:

Consumption is a direct reflection of people's demands for a better life. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Chinese people's lives have become better and better, and their consumption level has improved day by day. China now has become the second largest consumer market in the world. How do you see the development of consumption in the past ten years, and what are your plans for promoting consumption? Thank you.

Sheng Qiuping:

Thanks for your questions. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the national commerce system has firmly implemented the strategy of expanding domestic demand and done a solid job of promoting consumption. By doing so, the scale of consumption has expanded steadily, its structure has upgraded continuously, and its mode has continued to innovate, which provided strong support for boosting high-quality development, creating high-quality life, and fostering the new development paradigm.

First, the scale of consumption has expanded steadily. As you just said, China has become the second largest market for commodity consumption globally, and its advantages of a super-large market have become more obvious. The final consumption expenditure rose from 27.5 trillion yuan in 2012 to 56.1 trillion yuan in 2020, and its proportion to GDP up to 54.7% from 51.1%. The rapid development of China's consumer market has not only improved Chinese people's lives but also provided more development opportunities for other countries. Last year, China's import volume of consumer goods reached 1.7 trillion yuan, more than double that of 2012, accounting for about 10% of the total imports.

Second, the structure of consumption has continuously upgraded. Residents' consumption has changed from quantity satisfaction to quality improvement, from commodity consumption to both commodity and service consumption, and from imitation to individuation and diversification. Last year, the Engel coefficient, a measure of food expenditure as a proportion of total household spending, was 29.8%, down 3.2 percentage points from 2012. New car sales ranked first worldwide for 13 consecutive years, and the number of cars per 1,000 people increased 1.4 times from 2012.

Third, new-type consumption has been booming. New commercial forms, models, and scenarios such as online retail, cross-border e-commerce, and mobile payments emerge constantly. Traditional commercial enterprises have sped up their digital and intelligent transformation and integration of online and offline consumption, becoming an important engine for economic growth and profoundly changing the daily lives of Chinese people. Last year, online retail sales of physical goods reached 10.8 trillion yuan, accounting for 24.5% of total retail sales of consumer goods, ranking first in the world. Green, healthy and intelligent consumption has become popular. In 2021, the sales volume of new energy vehicles reached 3.52 million, with one out of every eight new cars sold being new energy vehicles. The number of new energy vehicles reached 7.84 million, accounting for about half of the total global volume. Meanwhile, 266 million 5G mobile phones were shipped, accounting for 76% of the total shipment of mobile phones.

Fourth, urban and rural consumption has developed coordinately. Urban retail sales of consumer goods grew from 18 trillion yuan in 2012 to 38.2 trillion yuan in 2021, with an average annual growth rate of 8.7%; while retail sales in rural areas rose to 5.9 trillion yuan from 2.6 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 9.8%. Last year, retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas accounted for 13.4% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, up nearly 1 percentage point from 2012. Steady progress has been made in developing cities as international consumer centers, and its radiation effect and leading role have been strengthened. In 2021, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing accounted for 13.8% of the country's total volume.

Fifth, the contribution of consumption has increased steadily. The fundamental role of consumption in economic development has been increasingly strengthened and so have its roles as a stabilizer and anchor. Last year, the contribution rate of consumption to economic growth was 65.4%, up 10 percentage points from 2012.

Next, the MOFCOM will further implement the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, coordinate epidemic prevention and control and consumption promotion, carry out a series of consumption promotion activities, and create a platform for consumption upgrading. We will improve traditional consumption capacity, accelerate the development of new-type consumption, and promote the sustained recovery and upgrading of consumption so as to better serve the new development paradigm and better meet people's demands for a better life. Thank you.

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