China’s big plan to boost domestic consumption in midst of US trade war
- Beijing’s measures include improving commercial pedestrian streets and encouraging night markets and entertainment
- Plan also calls on exporters to shift focus to products they can sell in the domestic market
China has unveiled a series of measures to try to boost consumer spending and focus exporters on the domestic market as it continues to battle the United States over trade.
In an official policy document published on Tuesday, the State Council, China’s cabinet, listed 20 measures to help improve domestic consumption, from improving commercial pedestrian streets to encouraging night markets.
The announcement, dated August 16, comes after retail sales growth slowed to 7.6 per cent in July from a year earlier, a sharp slowdown from 9.8 per cent growth in June, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In real terms, the growth was even lower at 5.7 per cent last month.
China’s economic growth slowed to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter from 6.4 per cent in each of the previous two quarters.
Without specifying, the document said factors at home and abroad had resulted in consumption bottlenecks and shortcomings, including an insufficient supply of goods and services.
It said traditional retailers and distributors had a great deal of room to innovate and there was still potential to be tapped in both urban and rural consumption.