People shop at a market in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou Province on December 13, 2022. Photo: IC

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspected the People's Bank of China and State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Monday, during which he called for further strengthening of financial support for the expansion of domestic consumption, according to China Media Group on Tuesday.

Against the backdrop of lingering weak global demand and high inflation, the country, with its downgraded epidemic response and effective economic policy support, is embracing a rapid domestic consumption pickup, exemplified by the stronger-than-expected rebound during the Chinese Spring Festival holidays.

The government will further ramp up financial support for the expansion of domestic demand, Li said. Measures such as improving the financing environment for the private economy and for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as maintaining the basic stability of the exchange rate of the Chinese yuan at a reasonable and balanced level were noted.

The remarks came on the sidelines of a national business work meeting organized by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) via video link on Monday, sending a clear message about bolstering the recovery and expansion of domestic consumption, a core part of the economic work in 2023, according to MOFCOM on Tuesday.

The meeting pledged to put more weight on restoring and expanding consumption, while promoting high-level opening-up, and vigorously boosting market confidence.

Meetings of several other ministries and government departments that have been held since early January also pledged to shore up domestic consumption via measures such as upgrading consumers' buying power with subsidies and investment expansion.

In the wake of the optimized epidemic response and policy support, the nation saw an overall consumption recovery during the Chinese Spring Festival holidays, particularly in the tourism sector, which had been badly affected by COVID-19.

Data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows that there were 308 million domestic tourist trips during the Spring Festival holidays this year, a year-on-year increase of 23.1 percent and reaching 88.6 percent of the level in 2019, underscoring an optimistic trend in the economic recovery.

Domestic tourism revenue amounted to 375.84 billion yuan ($55.62 billion), a year-on-year increase of 30 percent and a recovery to 73.1 percent of the level in 2019.

Other consumption sectors such as the nation's box office had a shiny record of 6.758 billion yuan, ranking second in Chinese film history during the long holiday.

China has put the domestic market at the core of the economic recovery drive, and consumption was particularly impacted by the epidemic.

As a crucial part of efforts to stabilize growth, the Central Economic Work Conference, which was held in Beijing in mid-December last year, said that priority should be given to restoring and expanding consumption, including support for consumption of housing, new-energy vehicles and elderly care.

Global Times