China ensures market availability and stimulates festive spending
On Friday, China's State Council Information Office (SCIO) conducted a press conference focused on ensuring market supply and boosting consumption throughout the Spring Festival.
TroibNews 
The State Council Information Office of China held a press conference on Friday to discuss measures for ensuring market supply and promoting consumption during the Spring Festival.
The 2025 Chinese Spring Festival will be particularly significant as it marks the first celebration after the successful inclusion of the Chinese New Year in UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, along with the establishment of New Year's Eve as a legal holiday. This makes the efforts to ensure market supply and stimulate consumption during this festive period crucial for the country.
As the primary agency responsible for implementing consumer goods trade-in programs, China's Ministry of Commerce has rolled out several measures that have proven beneficial for consumers. According to the briefing, over 1 million units of home appliances have been purchased through the national trade-in program as of January 23, 2025. The impressive success of this initiative was noted by Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping at the press conference.
Additionally, China's service consumption is experiencing both expansion and upgrades. Various policy measures have been instituted to further open the service sector, aimed at continuously addressing the growing demands of consumers. There is a noticeable increase in audiences traveling to cities for performances, games, and dramas.
New consumption drivers in China are gaining traction, with the country actively exploring new consumption potential, implementing initiatives to enhance digital consumption, and promoting the high-quality development of rural e-commerce. Sheng Qiuping remarked that the consumption environment in China is also steadily improving. In 2024, the influx of foreign visitors to five major international consumer cities—Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing—nearly doubled compared to the previous year.
To support the Spring Festival, China has strengthened supply organization, made adjustments to reserves, ensured convenient services, and focused on key areas, stated Li Gang, director general of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion at the Ministry of Commerce. He added that the market for essential goods is well-supplied nationwide, with prices remaining generally stable in the lead-up to the festival, based on official data monitoring.
The popularity of winter sports in China continues to rise. From November 1, 2024, to January 19, 2025, the number of skiing visits in the country's seven northern provinces and regions increased by 27.5 percent year-on-year, according to Yang Xuedong, director general of the Sports Economy Department at the General Administration of Sport of China. Last Saturday, China introduced national winter sports consumption initiatives for 2024-2025, which include discounts on ski tickets and transportation to further meet public interest in winter sports and stimulate consumer activity.
James del Carmen for TROIB News
The 2025 Chinese Spring Festival will be particularly significant as it marks the first celebration after the successful inclusion of the Chinese New Year in UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, along with the establishment of New Year's Eve as a legal holiday. This makes the efforts to ensure market supply and stimulate consumption during this festive period crucial for the country.
As the primary agency responsible for implementing consumer goods trade-in programs, China's Ministry of Commerce has rolled out several measures that have proven beneficial for consumers. According to the briefing, over 1 million units of home appliances have been purchased through the national trade-in program as of January 23, 2025. The impressive success of this initiative was noted by Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping at the press conference.
Additionally, China's service consumption is experiencing both expansion and upgrades. Various policy measures have been instituted to further open the service sector, aimed at continuously addressing the growing demands of consumers. There is a noticeable increase in audiences traveling to cities for performances, games, and dramas.
New consumption drivers in China are gaining traction, with the country actively exploring new consumption potential, implementing initiatives to enhance digital consumption, and promoting the high-quality development of rural e-commerce. Sheng Qiuping remarked that the consumption environment in China is also steadily improving. In 2024, the influx of foreign visitors to five major international consumer cities—Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing—nearly doubled compared to the previous year.
To support the Spring Festival, China has strengthened supply organization, made adjustments to reserves, ensured convenient services, and focused on key areas, stated Li Gang, director general of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion at the Ministry of Commerce. He added that the market for essential goods is well-supplied nationwide, with prices remaining generally stable in the lead-up to the festival, based on official data monitoring.
The popularity of winter sports in China continues to rise. From November 1, 2024, to January 19, 2025, the number of skiing visits in the country's seven northern provinces and regions increased by 27.5 percent year-on-year, according to Yang Xuedong, director general of the Sports Economy Department at the General Administration of Sport of China. Last Saturday, China introduced national winter sports consumption initiatives for 2024-2025, which include discounts on ski tickets and transportation to further meet public interest in winter sports and stimulate consumer activity.
James del Carmen for TROIB News
