Since the beginning of 2025, the consumer market has generally shown a stable development trend, driven by policies such as consumer goods trade-in on a larger scale. From January to February, the total retail sales of consumer goods was 8.37 trillion yuan, up 4.0% year-on-year, 0.5 percentage points higher than that of the whole year of previous year.

First, goods consumption grew steadily. From January to February, retail sales of goods increased by 3.9% year-on-year, 0.7 percentage points faster than that of the previous year. The trade-in policy continued to show effects, with retail sales of communication equipment and cultural and office supplies of producers above the designated size up 26.2% and 21.8% year-on-year, and with furniture and home appliances up 11.7% and 10.9% respectively. According to data from the Automobile Distribution Association, retail sales of new-energy passenger vehicles increased by 35.5% year-on-year from January to February, with the retail penetration rate of new-energy vehicles at about 45%.

Secondly, service consumption continued to expand. From January to February, retail sales of services increased by 4.9% year-on-year, growing 1.0 percentage point faster than retail sales of goods, with catering revenues increasing by 4.3%, and retail sales of tourism consulting and leasing services, and transport and travel services achieving double-digit growth year-on-year. During the Spring Festival holiday, the total spending of domestic tourists increased by 7.0% year-on-year; the box office of Spring Festival films was 9.51 billion yuan, a record high for the Spring Festival period.

Thirdly, the online and offline sectors are developing in a coordinated manner. From January to February, the country’s online retail sales increased by 7.3% year-on-year, with online retail sales of physical goods increasing by 5.0%, accounting for 22.3% of total retail sales of consumer goods. In brick-and-mortar retailing, retail sales in warehouse membership shops maintained double-digit growth, while retail sales in convenience stores, professional shops and supermarkets increased by 9.8%, 5.4% and 4.0% year-on-year, respectively.

Fourthly, rural consumption is faster than that in towns and cities. From January to February, the retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas amounted to 1.13 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.6% year-on-year, 0.8 percentage points faster than that in cities and towns; rural retail sales accounted for 13.5% of the total amount of retail sales, an increase of 0.1 percentage points compared with the same period of the previous year; retail sales in counties and townships, which include towns and rural areas, accounted for 38.4% of the total amount of retail sales, an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared with the same period of the previous year.