State Council's Press Conference on "Special Action Plan to Boost Consumption"
Mar.17, the Chinese State Council published its” Special Action Plan to Boost Consumption.”《提振消费专项行动方案》, Which was foreshowed during the Economic-Themed Press Conference during last week’s Two Sessions. Today, there’s another press conference introducing the issue in detail. Hosted by NDRC, Human Resources and Social Security Department, Ministry of Commerce, PBoC, and State Administration for Market Regulation. I've done a transcript of it with some of my highlights.
BTW, I found myself doing too much on current policy issues recently and considering going back to the normal track, introducing more interesting research rather than merely focusing on these documents.
from Sinocism has translated the document, check it out: Special Action Plan for Boosting Consumption. 受权发布丨中共中央办公厅 国务院办公厅印发《提振消费专项行动方案》Some highlights:
Stock market positioning is worth noticing; the inclusion of “taking multiple measures to stabilize the stock market” in the section on “expanding channels for property income' under “Action to Increase Income of Urban and Rural Residents” is of great significance. My (maybe oversimplified) understanding is it’s trying to boost consumption by securing residents’ income from the stock market. A new frame for A-share.
Another seemingly minor but significant progress is that the government has begun to transform its traditional understanding of the relationship between work, holidays, and economic performance. The document has included a section emphasizing ensuring paid vacation and preventing overtime work.
My understanding is that previous generations (born before the 1980s) grew up during a period of rapid economic development when longer working hours could indeed directly lead to better economic returns. This environment fostered a culture that glorified overtime work and sacrificed work-life balance and holidays for economic gains, which is the so-called "involution" 内卷 in recent years.
On the other hand, these earlier generations experienced material scarcity in their childhood, so they tended to focus on producing tangible goods rather than consuming intangible cultural products and services.
However, as China's economic growth has gradually slowed in recent years, the incremental market has relatively narrowed, and the market needs to dig deeper into existing potential. The previous "involution culture" has begun to hinder consumption. Since September last year, we can observe that the decision-making concept of the economy is changing, placing more emphasis on the importance of vacations and cultural consumption rather than just focusing on the production of tangible goods. Although a complete transformation of concepts takes time, I believe this change is worth looking forward to.
Less paperwork for foreign celebrities to get a nationwide tour in China. They only need one-time approval from the first mainland city.
Optimize the approval process for commercial performances, sporting events, and various large-scale public activities. Increase the number of tickets available for sale in a safe and controllable manner. Strictly implement a responsibility system for content review at the first performance location of touring projects, and promote a "one-time approval, nationwide tour" policy.
There are no further details on childbirth subsidies, but the Vice President of NDRC mentioned that the National Health Commotion is working on drafting implementation details. Last Friday, Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, published its local subsidies for childbirth, providing a maximum ¥100,000 subsidies for the third child or more, which really boosted market enthusiasm.
Below is the transcript:
Li Chunlin-Deputy Director of NDRC
Consumption is the ultimate demand, which concerns both economic development and people's aspirations for a better life. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to promoting consumption, emphasizing that economic policies should focus more on benefiting people's livelihoods and stimulating consumption. Various departments and local governments have effectively implemented these policies. For example, the widely discussed "Two New" initiative from last year—our commission fulfilled its lead responsibility by allocating 150 billion yuan in ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2024 to support trade-in programs for consumer goods, which drove sales of automobiles, home appliances, home furnishings, electric bicycles and other items exceeding 1.3 trillion yuan. Other examples include the Ministry of Commerce's initiative to promote high-quality development of service consumption and the State Administration for Market Regulation's three-year action plan to optimize the consumption environment.
Overall, China has remained the world's second-largest commodity consumption market and the largest online retail market for more than a decade. Residents' consumption demands and structure continue to upgrade, with the proportion of service consumption expenditure steadily increasing, and new market space continuously expanding. This morning, the National Bureau of Statistics released data for January-February, showing that total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 4% year-on-year, 0.5 percentage points faster than the full year of 2023, with the trade-in policy for consumer goods driving relatively rapid growth in retail sales of corresponding categories. At the same time, we must recognize that due to multiple factors, issues such as weak consumer confidence and expectations, some unfulfilled consumption demands, and a consumption environment that needs improvement still objectively exist. There is still much work to be done to boost consumption, expand domestic demand, and better meet people's needs for a better life.
Both the Central Economic Work Conference and the Government Work Report listed "vigorously boosting consumption, improving investment efficiency, and expanding domestic demand in all aspects" as the top priority among this year's key tasks and clearly proposed implementing a special action to boost consumption. These all reflect the Central Committee's high emphasis on the people's well-being. Following the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, we worked with relevant departments to formulate the "Special Action Plan for Boosting Consumption," which was issued in the name of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council. This Plan was released in full yesterday, and I believe everyone has seen it. The Plan, following the policy thinking of enhancing consumption capacity through increasing income and reducing burdens, creating effective demand through high-quality supply, and strengthening consumption willingness through optimizing the consumption environment, proposes 30 policy measures in eight parts. The first seven parts deploy seven specific actions, including on the demand side: urban and rural resident income increase promotion action, consumption capacity guarantee and support action; on the supply side: service consumption quality improvement and benefit to the people action, bulk consumption renewal and upgrade action, consumption quality improvement action; and on the external environment side: consumption environment improvement action, restrictive measures clean-up and optimization action, etc. The eighth part further emphasizes the improvement of investment, fiscal, credit, statistical, and other supporting policies.
In the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will work with relevant departments to earnestly implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, effectively implement the Plan according to the division of responsibilities, strengthen coordination and linkage, improve working mechanisms, support various regions to explore practical measures according to local conditions, and quickly form a strong policy synergy to promote consumption growth and better meet people's consumption needs at all levels and in diverse ways.
CMG Reporter: Last year's Central Economic Work Conference and this year's Government Work Report both proposed implementing a special action to boost consumption in 2025. You have just introduced the background and main content of the "Plan." We would like to know what new policy highlights are in the "Plan"?
Li Chunlin:
During the drafting process of this document, we adhered to a combination of goal-oriented and problem-oriented approaches, aiming to promote consumption expansion, quality improvement, and upgrading, while further resolving prominent contradictions that restrict consumption. We focused on incremental policies that can add strength, be implemented, and provide tangible benefits to the public, expanding goods and services consumption in all aspects, mainly reflected in three areas:
First, comprehensive efforts on both supply and demand sides. Previous consumption policies mostly started from the supply side, emphasizing the creation of demand through supply guidance. This time, the "Plan" increases policy efforts on the demand side, focusing on promoting resident income increases and burden reduction. For example, it proposes promoting reasonable growth of wage income, including continuing the implementation of unemployment insurance stabilization and refund policies, supporting enterprises in stabilizing employment positions, and supporting workers in improving their skill levels; scientifically and reasonably increasing minimum wage standards, ensuring timely and steady adjustments to minimum wage standards, etc. Another example is that the "Plan," for the first time in a consumption-promoting document, emphasizes stabilizing the stock market and the housing market, and proposes corresponding measures, striving to make the public more confident in consumption, with more stable expectations and stronger confidence.
Second, coordinating consumption promotion and benefiting people's livelihood. During the drafting process of the "Plan," we insisted on combining consumption stimulation with improving people's livelihoods. On one hand, focusing on benefiting people's livelihoods, we worked with relevant departments to propose substantial policy measures. For example, in 2025, 300 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds will be arranged to support the expansion of consumer goods trade-in programs, which is twice the amount from last year, with the first batch of 81 billion yuan already allocated to local governments in early January. Through various efforts, in the first two months of this year, about 1.34 million new energy passenger vehicles were sold nationwide, and sales of level-one energy efficiency home appliances reached 24.1 billion yuan, increasing by 26% and 36% year-on-year respectively; about 33 million mobile phones priced below 6,000 yuan were sold, with sales reaching about 86 billion yuan, and average weekly sales volume and value increasing by 19% and 29% respectively compared to the week before the subsidies, showing a good start for the trade-in program. In the consumption capacity guarantee and support action, measures are proposed to reduce family burdens in childbirth, childcare, education, healthcare, elderly care, and other aspects. For instance, implementing a pediatric services year action, strengthening support for care services for completely disabled elderly people, and increasing subsidy standards for some students. On the other hand, providing more diverse and inclusive consumption supplies in line with people's daily needs. For example, for the elderly, we propose supporting local pilot projects to install elevators in multi-story buildings and develop meal assistance services for the elderly, making travel and dining more convenient. For young friends, especially "Gen-Z," we propose supporting tourist attractions and cultural institutions in expanding service projects and reasonably extending operating hours, optimizing the approval process for performances and events, and promoting "one approval, nationwide tour" for touring projects, giving everyone better experiences when watching performances, exhibitions, concerts, or traveling. In addition, we will promote the acceleration of equipping communities with shopping, dining, housekeeping, repair, and other service points, allowing more residents to enjoy convenient services "at their doorstep" and "downstairs."
Third, strengthening consumption policy coordination. Boosting consumption requires coordinated efforts from various policies. The "Plan" mentions that economic and social policies including fiscal, financial, industrial, and investment policies should all reflect the policy orientation of promoting consumption. This includes concrete financial inputs such as project investments, fiscal funds, labor union funds, and consumption assistance, as well as related policy support such as consistency assessment of macroeconomic policy orientation, financial credit, statistical system reform, and protection of rest and vacation rights. For example, addressing the prominent pain point of "prevalent overtime culture" that many have reported, the "Plan" specifically proposes relevant measures for "protecting the rights to rest and vacation," implementing the paid annual leave system through strengthened enforcement and supervision, clearly stating that it is prohibited to illegally extend workers' working hours, while encouraging flexible staggered vacations and encouraging eligible localities to establish spring and autumn breaks for primary and secondary schools. We believe that with the implementation of the "Plan," China's consumer market will have stronger growth momentum and higher quality consumption supply, bringing more improvements and conveniences to everyone's lives.
Bloomberg: I have several questions. We would like to know what other products are being considered are being considered for inclusion in that consumer trade-in program. We’d also like to see if you guys can also offer more specific details about what the government is trying to do to promote salary increases for workers. We’ve noticed that Chinese working hours are getting longer, going to a record 49 hours a week last year; what will the government do to address that? Lastly, we are hoping you could provide more details about the childcare subsidies program mentioned in the government work report.
Li Chunlin:
As mentioned in the opening remarks and previous answers, the "Plan" is a comprehensive document that coordinates overall efforts, gathering policy synergy from more than 30 departments during its development. It's a document that collects collective wisdom and strength. Subsequent implementation also requires joint efforts from relevant departments. This "Plan" proposes two special actions targeting the demand side, especially increasing residents' income and reducing their burdens. Regarding the childcare subsidies and labor wage policies you are concerned about, the relevant functional departments are actively accelerating their formulation and launch. These will be introduced successively in the future and will be further detailed and implemented.
Additionally, this year's consumer goods trade-in policy was already determined at the beginning of the year. The recent National "Two Sessions" approved this year's budget, including 300 billion yuan from ultra-long-term special treasury bonds for consumer goods trade-in policy expenditures. This year's consumer goods trade-in policy has both "strengthened" and "expanded in scope." As I just introduced, the subsidy amount has increased from 150 billion yuan last year to 300 billion yuan this year, and mobile phones, tablets, smart watches (bands), and other items have been included in the subsidy scope. I think it's worth seeing the implementation effects before deciding on the next step of the policy. Our commission will better play its coordinating role, further build consensus, and promote departments to accelerate research and formulation of supporting policies in various fields, ensuring that the measures in the "Plan" can truly be implemented and effective.
Southern Metropolis Daily’s N Video Reporter: A good consumption environment is of great importance for enhancing residents' willingness to consume. What considerations does the government have regarding optimizing the consumption environment?
Market Supervision Administration Market Inspection Commissioner Ji Xiaoling:
As you mentioned, a good consumption environment is of great significance for enhancing consumer willingness. The "Special Action Plan for Boosting Consumption" clearly states the need to create an environment for safe consumption. In February this year, with the approval of the State Council, the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with the National Development and Reform Commission and other four departments, jointly issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for Optimizing the Consumption Environment (2025-2027)." Its core objective is to build a virtuous cycle of "optimizing the consumption environment - boosting consumer confidence - expanding consumer demand." To this end, we will work closely with various departments to adopt a series of practical and effective measures, steadily promote the implementation of the three-year action plan, and strive to create a safe, reliable consumption environment that gives consumers peace of mind.
On one hand, we need to fully unleash market vitality and promote voluntary commitments and honest operations by businesses. As providers of goods and services, businesses play a key role in optimizing the consumption environment. We will actively organize resources from various regions, departments, and industry associations to explore measures such as standard-setting, credit incentives, and financial empowerment to guide more businesses to actively participate in trustworthy consumption commitment activities. This encourages businesses to conscientiously fulfill their commitments, transforming from passive response to proactive improvement, and providing consumers with higher quality goods and services.
On the other hand, we will strictly carry out regulatory enforcement to ensure that consumers can consume safely and knowingly. Safety is the basic premise for reassuring consumption, while integrity is an important guarantee. We will carry out special rectification actions targeting persistent market problems strongly reported by the public, such as illegal food additives, counterfeit and inferior products, price fraud, and false advertising. We will strengthen the supervision of defective product recalls to make the market safer, more orderly, and more standardized. In recent years, market supervision departments have continuously carried out "Iron Fist" actions in areas affecting people's livelihoods, concentrating on investigating and punishing illegal behaviors such as illegal food additives, false advertisements, and fuel dispenser measurement fraud, forming a powerful deterrent to illegal operators. This year, we will continue to deploy the "Safeguarding Consumption" Iron Fist action, and we invite you to stay tuned.
Finally, we must fully enhance the effectiveness of consumer rights protection, making it more convenient and worry-free for consumers to protect their rights. An efficient rights protection mechanism is an important guarantee for reassuring consumption. In 2024, market supervision departments nationwide handled 24.094 million complaints and reports, helping consumers recover economic losses of 5.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.9%. Next, we will comprehensively upgrade the 12315 platform, strengthen the application of big data technology, promote online resolution mechanisms for consumer disputes, expand the grassroots consumer rights protection service network, and strive to resolve more consumer disputes in their embryonic stage, achieving "zero distance" and "high efficiency" in consumer rights protection.
Dear reporters, the consumption environment is closely related to each of us, and optimizing it requires the joint efforts of the entire society. Market supervision departments will actively promote departmental collaboration, corporate compliance, industry self-discipline, media supervision, and broad consumer participation, working hand in hand with all parties to jointly build and share a reassuring consumption environment.
Yi Cai Reporter:
The Ministry of Finance has stated that this year it will vigorously optimize the expenditure structure, with greater emphasis on benefiting people's livelihoods, promoting consumption, and increasing long-term momentum. May I ask, what specific support policies are there for improving people's livelihoods?
Ministry of Finance Economic Construction Department Director Fu Jinling：
In 2025, the Ministry of Finance will thoroughly implement the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. The proactive fiscal policy will "continue to exert force and provide more strength," vigorously optimize the expenditure structure, further increase support for improving people's livelihoods, strengthen medical care, education, elderly care, and employment security, and support the enhancement of residents' consumption capacity.
First, support for strengthening the employment priority policy. In 2025, the central government will allocate 66.74 billion yuan for employment subsidies to support local implementation of employment and entrepreneurship support policies, coordinate relevant funds and resources, promote full employment, and improve employment quality. Focusing on key areas and urgently needed occupations, the government will support increased efforts to train skilled personnel and help resolve structural employment contradictions. It will continue to focus on employment for key groups such as college graduates and guide and encourage enterprises to absorb employment.
Second, support for improving basic pension and basic medical security levels. In 2025, the government will support increasing the basic pension for urban and rural residents and appropriately raise the basic pension for retirees. At the same time, the per capita government subsidy standard for resident medical insurance will reach 700 yuan per person per year. The central government will continue to increase subsidies for basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents and allocate 29.65 billion yuan for medical assistance subsidies, strengthening the comprehensive protection of the three-tier system of basic medical insurance, major illness insurance, and medical assistance.
Third, support for improving basic public health service levels. In 2025, the government subsidy standard for basic public health service funds will increase to 99 yuan per person per year. The central government will allocate 80.55 billion yuan for basic public health service subsidies to support securing the health "safety net" for the people.
Fourth, support for ensuring education funding as a priority. In 2025, the central government will increase central-level education expenditure and education transfer payments to local governments, optimize the structure of education expenditure, support the expansion of quality undergraduate education, and expand educational resource supply in regions with net inflows of school-age population. At the same time, through raising some student aid standards, expanding policy coverage, continuing the implementation of interest-free national student loans and principal repayment extension policies, and gradually implementing free preschool education, the government aims to reduce the educational expenditure pressure on students' families.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance will continue to strengthen funding support to ensure the basic living standards of disadvantaged groups, cooperate with relevant departments to further improve the childcare and elderly care service systems, and actively conduct research on childcare subsidy systems and other work.
Market News International: Beyond short-term measures like consumption subsidies, how will policies promote employment to achieve sustainable consumption growth? What is the overall employment situation this year?
Chen Yongjia, Director of the Employment Promotion Department at Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security:
Employment is the most fundamental livelihood issue. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to employment work. Looking at the first two months of this year, a series of measures beneficial to promoting employment are gaining momentum. From the "Spring Breeze Action" organized before and after the Spring Festival, we can see that enterprise recruitment is active, job seekers are highly motivated, and the employment market is generally stable, laying a good foundation for the whole year's work. We are confident in maintaining overall employment stability.
Regarding specific policies to promote employment, we will implement support plans for key areas, key industries, urban and rural grassroots areas, and small and medium-sized enterprises. This is a decision and deployment made by the central government, fully reflecting the organic combination of economic development and employment promotion, as well as the organic combination of industrial policies, major projects, and employment policies. It can be said that this captures the key to stabilizing and promoting employment. At the "Two Sessions" livelihood-themed press conference on March 9, our Minister Wang Xiaoping already introduced relevant information. Currently, this plan has been issued and implemented. Here, I would like to highlight two aspects of the plan's specific content:
On one hand, in terms of job development direction, we will focus on industrial development, consumption expansion, major projects, and public service areas to open up more employment channels for workers. Regarding industrial development, we will deeply tap into the employment potential of new quality productive forces such as advanced manufacturing, stabilize the scale of manufacturing employment, and create more high-quality jobs. Regarding consumption expansion, we will vigorously promote the transformation of new consumption hotspots into new employment channels, driving employment growth in related fields. Regarding major projects, we will focus on the employment growth brought by major engineering projects, implement work-relief programs on a larger scale, and expand employment capacity. Regarding public services, we will broaden employment space in urban and rural grassroots services while ensuring people's livelihoods, developing county economies, and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization. At the same time, we will leverage the role of private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises as the main channel of employment and enhance their employment attractiveness.
On the other hand, in terms of specific policy measures, we will focus on reducing burdens and stabilizing positions, expanding job incentives, supporting entrepreneurship, and improving job matching to promote employment and entrepreneurship for key groups. To reduce burdens and stabilize positions, we will continue to implement policies to temporarily lower unemployment and work injury insurance rates, encourage financial institutions to innovate special loans for stabilizing and expanding jobs, moderately increase loan amounts for small and medium-sized enterprises, expand coverage, and guide enterprises to stabilize positions. To strengthen job expansion incentives, we will promptly deliver tax preferences, guaranteed loans, employment subsidies, and other policies, expand the coverage of one-time job expansion subsidies, coordinate various industrial funds to promote employment, and encourage enterprises to absorb more employment. To strengthen entrepreneurship support, we will promote efficient completion of "individual entrepreneurship" matters, lower the threshold for key groups to enter entrepreneurship parks, encourage eligible localities to increase entrepreneurship guaranteed loan amounts, research and introduce relevant policies to support innovation and entrepreneurship parks, and leverage the multiplier effect of entrepreneurship driving employment. To strengthen job matching, we will establish a job collection and publishing system, promptly connect with relevant industrial development and key investments, implement job creation in specific projects and enterprises, promote more targeted "small but beautiful" recruitment activities, and achieve efficient job matching.
In the next step, we will actively cooperate with relevant parties, improve working mechanisms, strengthen coordination between higher and lower levels, tap into more employment opportunities, and promote policy implementation and effectiveness. The implementation of the employment support plan also requires active participation from employers and workers. We hope that media friends will strengthen publicity and interpretation to increase policy awareness.
CNR Reporter: Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that in 2024, trade-in programs drove consumption exceeding 1.3 trillion yuan. The continuity of these policies has injected vitality and confidence into the market. How will trade-in policies be advanced in depth going forward?
Ministry of Commerce Market Operation and Consumption Promotion Department Director Li Gang:
Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Commerce has thoroughly implemented the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, working together with all regions and departments to strengthen and expand the implementation of consumer goods trade-in programs, as Deputy Director Li Chunlin just mentioned. "Strengthening" means significantly increasing support funds from ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, from 150 billion yuan last year to 300 billion yuan. "Expansion" is mainly reflected in four aspects: First, we added purchase subsidies for three types of digital products—mobile phones, tablets, and smart watches (bands); Second, we expanded the scope of vehicles eligible for scrapping and replacement to include qualified China IV emission standard fuel passenger vehicles, as well as new energy passenger vehicles registered before the end of 2018; Third, we increased home appliance trade-in products from 8+N to 12+N, adding water purifiers, dishwashers, rice cookers, and microwave ovens, while allowing localities to add categories based on their actual conditions; Fourth, while continuing to provide subsidies for items and materials used in kitchen and bathroom "renewals," we encourage localities to explore subsidies based on renovation contracts.
As of March 16, the total number of applications for vehicle trade-ins nationwide exceeded 1.32 million; consumers purchased more than 26 million units of 12 major categories of home appliances through trade-in programs, and over 41 million consumers applied for subsidies for 51 million digital products including mobile phones. In January-February this year, the retail sales of communication equipment, furniture, and household appliances above designated size increased by 26.2%, 11.7%, and 10.9% year-on-year, respectively. Although automobile sales decreased in value, sales volume maintained growth. According to data from the Automobile Dealers Association, domestic passenger car retail volume increased by 1.2% year-on-year in January-February, with February showing a 26% year-on-year increase, demonstrating an accelerating upward trend. According to Ministry of Commerce data, the nationwide vehicle scrapping and recycling volume increased by 50.1% year-on-year in January-February, with February showing a remarkable 188.2% increase, reaching a historic high. Currently, detailed implementation rules for various sectors are being successively issued by localities, and we will ensure their proper implementation. At the same time, we will focus on the following four areas:
First, optimizing convenient services. Last year, we developed a vehicle trade-in system connected to relevant department data, achieving a "one-stop application, one-network review" subsidy process, while also launching a home appliance trade-in eligibility verification system. This year, we will further improve related system functions, such as adding "cross-regional data verification and comparison" functionality, to continuously improve review efficiency. Meanwhile, we will guide localities to further simplify processes and increase disbursement speed, allowing subsidy funds to reach consumers more efficiently and conveniently.
Second, preventing policy risks. For concerning issues like fraudulent transactions, duplicate applications, and selling one device multiple times, we use real-time monitoring and interception through iterative system upgrades and information technology. At the same time, we maintain smooth supervision and reporting channels, working with relevant departments to guide localities in timely investigation and punishment, resolutely maintaining market order and protecting consumers' legitimate rights and interests.
Third, smoothing the recycling chain. Where there is "new," there is "old." We will focus on the "disposal of old" link, accelerate the implementation of second-hand goods circulation pilots, deeply promote the construction of recyclable resource recovery systems, continuously smooth the recycling and utilization chain for used goods, and improve resource recycling capacity and standards.
Fourth, strengthening publicity and promotion. We will build a joint publicity matrix to continuously promote policy processes, standards, and progress, making good policies widely known, innovating in promoting activities, organizing local stations and exchange activities, strengthening supply-demand connections, new product launches, and joint promotions to stimulate consumer enthusiasm. Next month, the fifth International Consumer Products Expo will be held in Hainan, where we will organize special new product launch events. We welcome the attention and support of media friends.
Xinhua: Boosting consumption requires financial support. What specific measures will the People's Bank of China introduce in this regard?
People's Bank of China Credit Market Department Director Che Shiyi:
In 2024, the People's Bank of China carefully implemented the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, implementing several major monetary policy adjustments that effectively boosted market confidence, promoted steady economic growth, and created a favorable macroeconomic environment for consumption. Moving forward, the People's Bank of China will carefully implement the requirements of the "Special Action Plan for Boosting Consumption," and together with financial regulatory and other departments, research and issue specialized documents for financial support to expand consumption, strengthen coordination between financial, fiscal, and industrial policies, and guide financial institutions to actively meet the diverse funding needs of various entities from both the supply and demand sides of consumption. This includes four main aspects:
First, implementing appropriately accommodative monetary policy to create a favorable financial environment for expanding consumption. Following the central government's requirement to "implement more active and effective macroeconomic policies," we will adjust and optimize policy strength and pace based on domestic and international economic and financial situations and financial market operations. We will comprehensively utilize various monetary policy tools such as reserve requirements, rediscounting, and open market operations to maintain ample liquidity. We will also research and create new structural monetary policy tools to increase low-cost funding support for key consumption areas.
Second, deploying a combination of consumption policies to support quality improvement and benefiting the people in consumption supply. We will strengthen departmental coordination and increase financial support for business entities in key consumption areas such as culture and tourism, elderly care, and sports, promoting the development and growth of consumption-related industries and enterprises. We will enhance specialized financial services for consumption infrastructure and commercial circulation system construction to promote the improvement of consumption supply quality and efficiency. We will promote joint efforts between financial policies and fiscal interest subsidies, tax reductions, and fee cuts to support the increase of high-quality consumer products and services, enhancing consumer satisfaction among the people.
Third, optimizing financial products and services to meet differentiated consumption needs. We will guide financial institutions to research and launch targeted financial products around new consumption scenarios such as trade-ins, smart products, and winter sports. We will encourage financial institutions to innovate products and implement differentiated pricing based on customer needs and risk characteristics, appropriately reducing relevant fees and optimizing financial services for groups such as college graduates, new urban residents, and freelancers. We will continue to promote payment convenience, focusing on consumption scenarios like food, housing, transportation, and tourism, providing efficient and convenient payment experiences for consumers such as the elderly and foreign visitors to China.
Finally, broadening funding sources for financial institutions to expand funding supply in the consumption sector. We will actively support financial institutions in issuing financial bonds for the consumption sector. We will support financial institutions in conducting asset securitization business based on consumer loans and auto loans to increase the provision of auto loans and consumer loans. We will expand counter bond(柜台债券) investment varieties and broaden channels for residents' property income for consumption purposes.
National Business Daily Reporter:
How will the National Development and Reform Commission coordinate various departments and regions to form policy synergy, ensuring that the consumption-boosting policy measures in the Plan are precisely implemented nationwide, avoiding "temperature differences" and "gaps" in policy execution?
Li Chunlin: We are considering advancing this from the following three aspects:
First, promoting departments to promptly introduce supporting policies. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have clearly proposed boosting consumption with greater strength and more precise measures. The Plan is a comprehensive document that provides overall guidance, developed through consultations and repeated demonstrations with more than 30 departments. The relevant departments present today are researching policies favorable to promoting consumption in areas such as fiscal and taxation, commerce, and finance. Many departments not present today, such as the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, China Securities Regulatory Commission, Ministry of Education, National Health Commission, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, etc., are all actively planning corresponding policies. For example, the childcare subsidies that the foreign media reporter was concerned about earlier are also mentioned in the Plan, and the National Health Commission is already drafting specific implementation plans. Other policies, such as expanding the use of housing provident funds and actions to increase the income of low-income rural populations, are also being actively promoted by relevant functional departments. As the saying goes, "many hands make light work." Our commission will better play its coordinating role, further build consensus, and promote departments to accelerate research and development of supporting policies in various fields. We believe that the joint efforts of all departments will provide strong support for the implementation of the Plan and promote the continuous release of policy dividends.
Second, encouraging localities to explore practical measures based on local conditions. We have noticed that since the beginning of this year, many places have mobilized and deployed efforts to boost consumption, and many are exploring and planning various innovative practices. Considering that consumption promotion policies have a wide scope and significant differences between regions, the Plan supports localities to actively explore practical measures based on their own conditions and resource endowments, increasing support in developing elderly care and childcare services, snow and ice economy, traditional folk consumption, clearing unreasonable consumption restrictions, and improving the business environment. For example, during the 2024-2025 snow and ice season, Harbin, leveraging the "east wind" of hosting the 9th Asian Winter Games, organized international ice and snow festivals, ice and snow sculpture competitions, and other activities, receiving over 90 million tourists. Snow and ice consumption in the south is also very popular; China now has 59 indoor ski resorts, the vast majority concentrated in southern cities. I have seen such ski resorts in Shenzhen, which have also driven effective growth in related consumption. In the next step, we will work with relevant departments to strengthen incentives and guidance for local consumption promotion and promptly elevate advanced experiences and practices to institutional mechanisms.
Third, smoothing the circulation of the consumer market. Consumption ultimately comes down to the "two-way meeting" between consumers and businesses. The innovative momentum of flourishing enterprises gives rise to new technologies and products such as AI large models and humanoid robots, which are loved by consumers and fully recognized by the market. Consumption upgrades further lead to industrial upgrades, forming a virtuous cycle in the consumer market. We will focus on the prominent contradictions restricting consumption, make great efforts to promote reform, fully release consumption potential, and stimulate market vitality. For consumers, we will make great efforts to protect their legitimate rights and interests, regulate unreasonable business practices, advocate for fair prices and good quality, making consumers feel at ease, worry-free, comfortable, and secure in their purchases. For operators, we will make great efforts to clear unreasonable restrictive measures, accelerate the construction of a unified national market, create a good market environment conducive to supply innovation, and tap into and consolidate the advantages of the super-large-scale consumer market.
21st Century Business Herald Reporter:
Service consumption is closely related to people's lives, and its proportion in overall consumption is increasing. The Government Work Report mentioned expanding diversified service supply in health, elderly care, childcare, and housekeeping services. The Plan released yesterday also mentioned service consumption in multiple places. How will service consumption development be specifically promoted?
Li Gang:
Service consumption such as elderly care and childcare, culture and tourism, health and sports, and housekeeping services is closely related to people's lives and directly affects the sense of fulfillment and happiness of billions of people. Since 2024, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, has issued support policies for service consumption, established cross-departmental working mechanisms, and carried out a series of service consumption promotion activities. With the support of various policy measures, in 2024, China's service retail sales increased by 6.2% year-on-year, and residents' per capita service consumption expenditure increased by 7.4% year-on-year. During this year's Spring Festival, as Deputy Director Li Chunlin mentioned, the Asian Winter Games helped turn "cold" resources into "hot" industries, while intangible cultural heritage tourism experience projects were also favored, and everyone genuinely felt the heat of the service consumption market. In January-February this year, service retail sales increased by 4.9% year-on-year. Moving forward, the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to focus on four aspects to promote the expansion of service consumption.
First, improving support policies. We will leverage the coordination mechanism for promoting service consumption development and, focusing on implementing the "State Council's Opinion on Promoting High-Quality Development of Service Consumption," accelerate the improvement of the "1+N" policy system for service consumption, refine support policies in areas such as housekeeping service consumption, tourism consumption, digital consumption, and sports consumption, creating a policy "combination punch" for service consumption and enhancing people's "sense of gain."
Second, optimizing service supply. Focusing on opening up to the outside world and liberalizing internally, we will increase the supply of quality services. We will steadily promote the opening of the service industry, expand pilot programs in telecommunications, medical care, education, and other fields, injecting new vitality into service consumption development. We will promote the integrated development of commerce, tourism, culture, sports, and health, guiding enterprises to strengthen innovation in technology, functionality, business formats, and models. We will cultivate a batch of diversified consumption scenarios to meet people's diverse and personalized consumption needs.
Third, building promotion platforms. We will lead the implementation of the service consumption quality improvement and people-benefiting action, leverage departmental synergy, enhance service quality, improve consumption experience, and cultivate new growth points for service consumption. We will carry out activities such as "Service Consumption Season," "Chinese Cuisine Gathering," "Taste Food Following Movies," and "Taste Food Following Sports Events," conduct a series of promotional activities focusing on areas close to people's lives with great demand potential and strong driving effects, create service consumption hotspots, and stimulate service consumption potential.
Fourth, improving the consumption environment. We will adhere to a problem-oriented approach, strengthen cross-departmental joint supervision, focus on credit system construction, enhance operators' integrity awareness, and improve the service consumption experience. We will formulate and revise a batch of national and industry standards in the fields of catering and accommodation, elderly care and housekeeping, culture and entertainment, etc., to enhance the standardization and regularization of the service industry and improve the convenience, comfort, and satisfaction of service consumption.
Beijing Youth Daily Reporter:
The Action Plan proposes using fiscal subsidies, loan interest subsidies, and other policy tools to play a leading and driving role in consumption. What are the Ministry of Finance's next work priorities?
Fu Jinling:
Thank you for your question and for your interest in fiscal work. In 2025, the Ministry of Finance will strengthen the coordination of various policy resources and support increasing quality supply and improving the consumption environment with greater strength and more precise measures.
First, supporting the strengthening and expansion of consumer goods trade-in programs. As Deputy Director Li Chunlin and Director Li Gang from the Ministry of Commerce just mentioned, in 2025, the central government's funding for consumer goods trade-in programs has doubled to 300 billion yuan, covering vehicle scrapping and renewal, home appliance trade-in subsidies, and now including digital products such as mobile phones in the subsidy scope. In early January this year, the central government already allocated in advance the first batch of 81 billion yuan for 2025, supporting localities in policy coordination work. The remaining funds will also be allocated as soon as possible to ensure the continuous implementation of trade-in policies, delivering real monetary benefits directly to consumers.
Second, supporting the promotion of new consumption business formats and models. Currently, new technologies, new ideas, and new demands are continuously driving the emergence of new consumption formats, while cross-border integration of consumption scenarios is bringing new incremental consumption demands. To accelerate the release of consumption potential, the central government will arrange reward and subsidy funds to support pilot programs for new consumption formats and models in key cities with large populations, strong driving effects, and good development potential. This will improve the first-launch economy service system, promote innovation and enrichment of consumption scenarios, increase the supply of quality consumption resources, and further release diversified and differentiated consumption potential.
Third, supporting the deepening of international consumption center cities' convenience construction. International consumption center cities are hubs and high-end platforms for global consumption resources, as well as innovative highlands leading global consumption development. The central government will arrange reward and subsidy funds to support China's international consumption center cities and some key consumption cities in creating an international consumption environment, building international-friendly commercial districts, improving the convenience and comfort of consumption for foreign nationals entering China, enriching quality consumption supply, and helping expand inbound consumption.
Fourth, supporting the strengthening of linkages between fiscal and financial policies. To further boost the consumption market, the central government plans to guide and drive credit resources to support the stable development of the consumption market through fiscal interest subsidies. Interest subsidies will be provided for loans to service industry operators in the consumption sector, effectively improving consumption infrastructure, strengthening service personnel skills training, and increasing quality service supply. At the same time, certain interest subsidies will be provided for Chinese residents' consumption in key areas using personal consumer loans, reducing consumers' credit costs and enhancing people's sense of happiness and fulfillment.
Guangming Daily Reporter:
The recently released Plan has attracted much attention. Regarding the implementation of the special action to boost consumption, what are the Ministry of Commerce's next plans? How will it better cultivate new consumption momentum?
Li Gang:
Thank you for your question. The Ministry of Commerce is carefully implementing the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, solidly carrying out the tasks in the "Special Action Plan for Boosting Consumption." We will focus on four areas—goods consumption, service consumption, new types of consumption, and consumption scenarios—to implement four major projects to expand consumption, continuously release diversified and differentiated consumption potential, and promote consumption quality upgrading.
First, regarding goods consumption, we will implement a goods consumption upgrade project. After years of development, China's goods market scale has continuously expanded with abundant supply of various consumer goods, but compared to residents' multi-level and diversified needs, there is still insufficient supply of high-quality goods. Last year, we carried out consumer goods trade-in programs, and this year we will strengthen and expand the implementation of these policies. We will also organize and carry out pilot reforms in automobile circulation and consumption, actively supporting qualified localities in taking the lead in promoting efficient circulation of used cars, developing the automotive aftermarket, and other areas, focusing on cultivating new growth points for automobile consumption.
Second, regarding service consumption, we will implement a service consumption quality improvement project. I have already reported on this to everyone just now.
Third, regarding new types of consumption, we will implement a new consumption cultivation project. Since last year, the dense opening of first stores, first exhibitions with renewed scenarios, and first launches have stimulated a purchasing boom. Yesterday, we launched the "National Premium First Launch Season" in Shanghai. Moving forward, we will work with relevant departments to actively promote the first-launch economy, encourage domestic and foreign enterprises to open first stores, hold first launches, first shows, and first exhibitions, continuously activating consumption potential. We will also organize activities such as the "Double Product Online Shopping Festival," "Digital Commerce Boosts Agriculture to Celebrate Harvest," and "Silk Road Cloud Products E-commerce Festival," cultivating quality e-commerce, guiding platforms to improve quality and optimize services, making online shopping reassuring and comfortable for everyone. We will develop "artificial intelligence + consumption," promote "IP + consumption," and continuously create new consumption growth points.
Fourth, regarding consumption scenarios, we will carry out a consumption scenario innovation project. Currently, consumption scenarios such as intangible cultural heritage markets, immersive cultural tourism, trendy play experience stores, and creative cafes are accelerating toward "newness," stimulating consumption enthusiasm. We will organize and carry out a series of "Shopping in China" activities to create more "must-buy, must-eat, playable, viewable" integrated consumption scenarios combining commerce, tourism, culture, sports, and health. At the same time, we will continue to implement urban commerce quality improvement actions, creating more high-quality pedestrian streets and commercial districts and enhancing the shopping experience. We will deepen the construction of 15-minute convenient living circles, making residents' lives more convenient. We will improve services for "the elderly and children," addressing residents' "concerns for the future." We will implement county-level commercial construction actions, promoting the upgrading of various rural circulation infrastructures and continuously releasing rural consumption potential.
Dazhong Daily: This year's Government Work Report places boosting consumption in a prominent position. What specific policy measures and work arrangements are there for promoting consumption upgrades and tapping into new consumption growth points?
Li Chunlin: Quality supply not only brings good consumption experiences and improves residents' quality of life but also generates continuous consumer demand. Let me give two examples. Last November, I went to Yiwu, Zhejiang for research and visited an umbrella merchant in the small commodities market. This merchant left an extremely deep impression on me. The store was not large, only about 30 square meters, and was a typical "shop in front, factory in back" operation. A mother and daughter ran the store while the husband made umbrellas at home. They had nearly 3,000 styles of colorful, well-crafted umbrellas. I was very impressed that they sold 5 million umbrellas a year and business was very good. Another example is the current hit movie "Nezha 2," which has already surpassed 15 billion yuan in box office receipts this weekend. This is the second time I've gone to the cinema to watch an animated film since I saw "Chang'an: Three Thousand Miles" the year before last. Also, some popular concerts now sell out instantly, with tickets "gone in seconds." It's evident that consumers are willing to pay for good products; the core is having goods and services that satisfy consumers. To promote consumption upgrades, the Plan will focus on three aspects:
First, cultivating new consumption growth points driven by technology. The Plan proposes clearing technological implementation bottlenecks to promote the accelerated development of new types of consumption, including promoting "artificial intelligence + consumption," accelerating the development and application of new technologies and products such as autonomous driving, smart wearables, ultra-high-definition video, brain-computer interfaces, robots, and additive manufacturing, making cutting-edge technological achievements benefit more consumers.
Second, promoting consumption supply innovation through business format integration. The Plan supports the integration of online and offline consumption and multiple business formats including commerce, tourism, culture, sports, and health. For example, it promotes the integration of new elements such as culture, technology, leisure, and parent-child activities into traditional department stores and other physical stores, upgrading them into new commercial venues with multi-business format integration. Another example is promoting new consumption business formats and models in key cities, with relevant support from various sectors. At the same time, we will also guide localities to optimize services and remove bottlenecks, such as strengthening supporting facilities for night consumption gathering areas, including activity venues, transportation capacity, and temporary parking spaces; simplifying approval processes for promotional activities and community markets; and promoting cross-departmental joint supervision to reduce impacts on public consumption venues, providing "escort" for the growth of new consumption formats.
Third, promoting consumption quality improvement through brand leadership. In recent years, domestic "trendy products" have become buzzwords, with more domestic brands transforming from "hidden champions" to well-known "famous and trendy products." The Plan proposes a series of measures: For service consumption brands, it focuses on commerce, logistics, culture, and tourism, formulating categorized policies to improve service quality, as Comrade Li Gang from the Ministry of Commerce just mentioned. For cultural consumption brands, it encourages enterprises to integrate excellent traditional Chinese culture into product design, cultivating more outstanding Chinese IPs like "The Three-Body Problem" and "Zhici Qinglv." Whether it's "Nezha" or "Chang'An," all are reprocessing and remanufacturing of excellent traditional Chinese culture. For goods consumption brands, it aims to create a matrix of famous Chinese consumption products, accelerate the cultivation of quality consumer brands, carry out a series of "Shopping in China" activities, and enrich integrated "eat, shop, tour, and entertain" consumption experiences.
China's consumer market contains enormous development opportunities. We hope more enterprises will focus on people's needs for a better life, be innovative and pursue excellence, and provide higher quality, more reassuring, and more diverse products and services, allowing Chinese brands to better benefit the people and go global.