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Multiple Chinese cities on Saturday launched a new round of consumption vouchers targeting the catering sector, which is aimed to boost the nation's positive consumption trend in 2024 and further stimulate demand ahead of the consumption peak at 2025 Spring Festival holidays.

Shanghai on Saturday launched the third round of voucher distribution for the city's consumption campaign. The latest round of distribution offers four types of vouchers at 30 percent discount with the maximum denomination reaching 1,000 yuan ($137.55), and vouchers are also available for visitors from other cities as well as foreigners who are in Shanghai.

The first two rounds of voucher distributions were launched at the end of September and November 2024, respectively, with the total value reaching 360 million yuan, according to Shanghai municipal government, with an additional 90 million yuan allocated for hotels, 30 million yuan for movie theaters, and 20 million yuan for sports facilities.

Since the issuance of consumption vouchers on September 28, the campaign has distributed over 6.03 million vouchers in total, achieving a funding leverage ratio of approximately 4.2, CCTV reported on November 29, 2024. 

As of November 26, the city's offline dining consumption totaled 58.39 billion yuan this year, marking an 11.4 percent year-on-year increase, the report said.

In addition, other Chinese cities such as Changsha in Central China's Hunan Province, Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan Province and Hefei in East China's Anhui Province on Saturday also launched consumption promotion events in collaboration with Alipay's new payment service, Alipay Tap.

Consumers in these cities can use the vouchers at businesses that support the Alipay Tap, and the voucher will be directly used upon payment. 

Cooperating with Meituan, Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province kicked off a new round of consumption promotion events at 7 pm on Saturday, offering vouchers of various denominations for the catering sector.

China's consumer market registered more rapid growth in October, and the National Bureau of Statistics on November 15 said in a statement that retail sales of consumer goods went up 4.8 percent year-on-year in October, quickening from the 3.2 percent increase in September. 

In the first 10 months, retail sales of consumer goods expanded 3.5 percent from a year earlier, 0.2 percentage points higher than the January-September period.

Global Times