Beijing stresses positives after car and appliance sales raise hopes for coronavirus rebound
- Government highlights strong consumer spending in selected areas over Labour Day holiday
- But private analysts say recovery remains modest and warn it depends on the global outlook
The China government continued to push its optimistic view of economic recovery on Friday, saying consumer spending on durables such as cars and home appliances received a significant boost during the recent Labour Day holiday.
But economists warned that the pace of the economic rebound remained modest, with the grim outlook for the global economy and mounting stress of domestic job losses and income cuts continuing to hold back spending by the nation’s more than one billion consumers.
Consumer spending on goods and services accounted for about 60 per cent of economic activity last year, so Beijing is counting on China’s middle class to power the economic recovery in the months ahead.
But the positive narrative depended on the selective use of statistics.
During the holiday period, which ran from May 1 to May 5, car sales at major firms saw a healthy increase in certain areas of the country.
Sales were up by 49.6 per cent in Shanghai compared with a year earlier, and rose by 28.5 per cent in Chongqing and 8.8 per cent in Zhejiang province, commerce vice-minister Wang Bingnan said on Friday.
However, he did not give a total national car sales figure.