Total revenue made by key companies in retail and catering sectors rose 28.7 percent year-on-year during this year’s Spring Festival holidays from Feb 11 to 17, reaching around 821 billion yuan ($127.1 billion), according to China’s Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday. 

The figure has exceeded the Spring Festival holiday spending in 2019 by 4.9 percent, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the Ministry of Commerce, China’s consumer market has demonstrated “robustness” and “vitality” under the normalized pandemic control measures and the request for people not to travel during the holidays.

Due to the impact of the epidemic in 2020, national consumption experienced a rare decline. Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 39.20 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.93 percent from 2019. 

According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce, the “stay put” policy promoted the growth of consumption. Sales of products such as home appliances, food, and fitness equipment are on the rise. Sales of beauty products and flowers also jumped. Sales of monitored retail companies in jewelry grew by more than 160 percent, and sales of clothing grew around 30 percent, compared to the same period last year. 

The catering sector was also bolstered by holiday spending. According to the ministry, sales of monitored catering companies grow 1.3 times. Catering revenue in Shanghai rose by 79 percent. 

China’s tourism sector has been recovering during the Spring Festival holidays, with total bookings for tourist attractions up 105 percent in the first four days of the holidays, compared to the previous week. China’s box office also rose to 7 billion yuan, breaking a historical record. In the first month of 2021, China’s total box office broke 10 billion yuan, almost half of the total revenue from last year. 

Global Times