On June 14, the Official of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion introduced the operation situation of China’s consumer market in May 2016.

The Official introduced that the retail sales of consumer goods in May reached RMB 2.66 trillion, going up 10% year on year, 0.1 percentage points lower than that of April. The actual growth was 9.7% with the price factor excluded，0.4 percentage points higher than that of April, up 0.8% month on month. The growth of the total retail sales of consumer goods in January-May was up 10.2% year on year. In May, the actual growth rate (price factor excluded) of the retail sales of 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce was 0.3 percentage points higher than that of April, picking up for three consecutive months since March.

The Official pointed out that the domestic consumer market enjoyed a steady growth in May. The main features are as follows:

1. Online retail maintained a rapid growth with the market share further improved. According to the State Statistics Bureau, In January-May, the online retail sales of physical commodities was up 25.9% year on year, 0.3 percentage points higher than that of January-April. Its proportion in the total retail sales of consumer goods increased to 11.3%, 0.2 percentage points higher than that of January-April. In May, the online retail sales of the key retail enterprises was up 25.5% year on year, 23.4 percentage points higher than that of the department stores and 18.3 percentage points higher than that of supermarkets, and 17.9 percentage points higher than that of shopping centers.

2. The upgraded goods were in great demands, and the intelligent and eco-friendly products were in hot sell. Promoted by the upgraded consumption and the busy season of travelling, the automobile sales of enterprises above the designated size in May was up 8.6% year on year, 3.5 and 6.5 percentage points higher than that of April and that of the same period of last year respectively; the sales of SUV was up 43.9% year on year; that of the new energy automobiles was up 141% year on year. The housing related consumption grew rapidly. The sales of building materials of enterprises above the designated size increased 16.8%, and that of furniture up 15.1%. With the progress of the intelligent and energy-saving technology, the strengthening of the consumers’ environmental awareness and the popularization of quality consumption, the intelligent and environment-friendly products were hot in the market. Among the enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, the growth rates of the sales of 4K TV, the double-door refrigerator, 4G cell phone and tubling-box washing machine were 15.9, 14.7, 13.8 and 12.6 percentage points higher than those of the same-kind products respectively.

3. Trade in services witnessed an expansion of market and a good growth trend. In May, the national catering revenue reached RMB 287.8 billion, up 10.9% year on year, up 10.8% month on month and up 11.3% year on year in January-May. In January-May, the revenue of the film box office reached RMB 20.7 billion, exceeding that of the first half of last year. With the changing consumption concept, the optimizing of the paid vacation system and the popularization of the internet and smart phones, more and more people were willing to travel. Leisure travel to islands, self-driving travel and family travel were popular. During the Labor’s Day Holiday, the per capita consumption of domestic travel surpassed RMB 2,000, up 10% year on year; the per capita entrance tickets consumption of the travelers surpassed RMB 100.

4. The consumption price remained steady, and the growth of pork price slowed down. In May, CPI was up 2.0% year on year, 0.3 percentage points slower than that of April. In 36 large and medium size cities monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, the prices of agricultural products were up 6.4% year on year, 4.1 percentage points lower than those in April, down 5.4% month on month. The prices of grain, oil and vegetable maintained steady. The price of pork continued to increase, with the wholesale price of pork reaching RMB 26.36 per kilogram, up 3.2% month on month, up 36.5% year on year and 0.7 percentage points lower than that in April. Because of the stocking up of the production enterprises before the Dragon Boat Festival, the price of eggs stopped falling and picked up with its wholesale price reaching RMB 8.12 per kilogram, up 0.1% month on month.

The official said that, the consumer market was expected to grow continuously and steadily, and the status of consumption as the first driving force of our national economy will be further consolidated.