Authoritative release! Ministry of Commerce： Compensatory consumption will appear in some areas.

　　Cctv newsAt the regular online press conference held by the Ministry of Commerce today (26th), the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on China’s consumption is short-term and controllable, and the epidemic will not change the development trend of China’s consumption.

　　The Ministry of Commerce said that after the outbreak, residents’ going out sharply decreased, and the consumer market was greatly affected. At the same time, China’s consumer market has also shown strong resilience, vitality and new growth points. Rigid consumption has increased steadily, new consumption hotspots have been accelerated, and the space for upgrading consumption has been continuously expanded. 1— In February, the retail sales of food and beverages of units above designated size increased by 9.7% and 3.1% respectively year-on-year, and the online retail sales of physical goods increased by 3% against the trend.

　　Recently, as the situation of epidemic prevention and control continues to improve, enterprises have resumed their business and the market sales have bottomed out. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Commerce, as of March 22nd, the average rate of resumption of work in large-scale agricultural products wholesale markets reached 97%, in large supermarkets 96%, in farmers’ markets (vegetable markets) 94% and in department stores (shopping centers) 90%.

　　Life services such as catering, accommodation and housekeeping are more obviously affected by the epidemic. Statistics of National Bureau of Statistics, 1— In February, catering revenue decreased by 43.1% year-on-year. According to the monitoring of the Ministry of Commerce, the operating income of accommodation, housekeeping and other industries decreased by more than 75% year-on-year in February.

　　Recently, with the steady progress of life service enterprises’ resumption of work, life service consumption has gradually recovered. According to the monitoring of the Ministry of Commerce, up to now, the return to work rates of catering, accommodation and domestic enterprises have reached about 80%, 60% and 40% respectively; The recovery of service consumption, such as catering, is also accelerating. On March 25th, the proportion of operating income of 3,000 catering stores contacted by the Ministry of Commerce in the same period last year rose by about 10 percentage points, which was more than 30 percentage points higher than the lowest point in February.

　　According to the Ministry of Commerce, with the further recovery of social production and living order, a series of policies and measures introduced by the state and local governments to promote consumption compensation and release have gradually taken effect, and the consumer market will further rebound steadily in the later period. In some areas, some rigid consumption has been delayed by the epidemic, and will be replenished after the epidemic, so compensatory consumption will occur.