Total retail sales of social consumer goods in the first 3 quarters

On October 21, the head of the market operation Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced the operation of China's consumer market in the first three quarters of 2019. The person in charge pointed out that the domestic consumption market in the first three quarters was generally stable. From January to September, the total retail sales of social consumer goods reached 29.7 trillion yuan, up 8.2% year on year. The basic role of consumption in economic growth continued to be consolidated. The contribution rate of final consumption expenditure to economic growth in the first three quarters reached 60.5%. The main highlights are as follows:

First, the consumption of basic life is strong. The retail sales of daily necessities, grain, oil, food, beverage, cosmetics and Chinese and Western medicine of units above designated size increased by 13.6%, 10.6%, 9.8%, 12.8% and 10.1% respectively on a year-on-year basis, 0.2, 0.3, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 percentage points higher than the same period of last year.

The second is the steady development of service consumption. The per capita service consumption expenditure of the whole country increased by 10.2%. The national catering revenue increased by 9.4% year-on-year, 1.4 percentage points higher than the retail growth of commodities. Service consumption accounted for 50.6% of the final consumption expenditure of residents, an increase of 0.7 percentage points over the same period of last year.

The third is the rapid growth of online retail. The online retail sales of physical goods increased by 20.5% year-on-year, accounting for 19.5% of the total social zero, 2 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. The total business volume of the National Express service enterprises reached 43.9 billion, up 26.4% year on year.

The fourth is that the growth rate of rural areas and the central and western regions is leading. The retail sales of rural consumer goods increased by 9.0% year-on-year, 1 percentage point higher than that in urban areas, accounting for 14.5% of the total social zero. The growth rate in the central and western regions has maintained a leading position. From January to August, the zero growth rate of Jiangxi, Yunnan, Henan, Hubei and Sichuan exceeded 10%, higher than the national average.

The fifth is the rapid growth of consumer goods import. From January to September, the cumulative import of consumer goods reached 1.04 trillion yuan, up 15.3% year on year. In terms of the main varieties, the import of pork and beef increased by 43.6% and 53.4%, the import of fruits, aquatic products and edible vegetable oil increased by 42.3%, 35.9% and 34.8%, the import of cosmetics and medicine increased by 39.9% and 25.8%, and the import of electric manned vehicles increased by 93.7%.

The sixth reason is that consumer prices have risen slightly. From January to September, consumer prices rose 2.5% year on year. In September, the year-on-year increase was 3.0%, of which the rise in livestock price affected the rise of consumer price by 2.03 percentage points. The price of edible agricultural products in 36 large and medium-sized cities monitored by the Ministry of Commerce has increased by 8.4% year on year and by 16.6% year on year in September.

At the same time, the consumption of automobiles and oil and products is not strong, which has a lot of impact on the social zero growth rate. In addition, the sales growth of gold, silver, jewelry, communication equipment, building materials, furniture and home appliances dropped 8.1, 4.3, 4.2, 4.2 and 2.3 percentage points respectively compared with the same period of last year. The person in charge said that in the face of the complex and changeable economic and trade environment at home and abroad, the domestic consumption market grew steadily in the first three quarters, playing the role of economic growth stabilizer and ballast stone. With the deepening of supply side structural reform, the further implementation of policies and measures such as tax reduction and fee reduction, "deregulation of services" reform, development of circulation and promotion of commercial consumption, the rapid development of new models and new formats, it is expected that consumption will maintain a stable growth trend in the later period.