Spring Festival consumption demonstrates resilience, vitality of Chinese economy

BEIJING, Feb. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from People's Daily

During this year's Spring Festival holiday, there has been a significant increase in cross-regional personnel movement across China, and the consumer market was full of vitality. This has presented the resilience and vitality of the Chinese economy to the international society.

Hundreds of millions of people took trains, planes, and other means of transportation to reunite with their families and friends, and it reflected the dynamism of the Chinese economy.

It is believed that the Spring Festival travel rush reflected the vitality of China's economic development, and the growing consumer demand brought about by the large-scale movement of the people has injected strong momentum into a good start for the Chinese economy this year.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, is one of the most important traditional festivals in China and serves as a key indicator of consumption. During the Spring Festival holiday this year, both domestic tourism and total expenditure in China have seen significant year-on-year increases.

The national box office and number of moviegoers have set new records for the same period. The average daily sales revenue in service consumption-related industries across the country has grown by 52.3 percent compared to the previous year.

This showcases a dynamic China to the world, bolstering international confidence in the country's economic growth.

The international community has been closely following China's consumption data during the Spring Festival, with many noting that tourism and consumption during the holiday this year have exceeded pre-pandemic levels, further indicating an improvement in consumption in the world's second-largest economy. Some said that the surge in consumer spending and travel during the holiday gave a boost to the Chinese economy.

The just-concluded Spring Festival holiday also mirrored China's open cooperation with other countries.

Freight trains were running between China and Europe and between China and Laos, while bustling large ports operated 24/7 during the holiday. Enterprises were working at full capacity to produce foreign trade orders, and over 1,800 cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses spread across more than 220 countries and regions.

As China implemented a visa-free policy for a larger circle of friends, inbound and outbound tourism has been on the rise. During the Spring Festival holiday, China's border inspection agencies nationwide saw nearly 13.52 million entries and exits by Chinese and foreign nationals, with an average of 1.69 million per day, a 2.8-fold increase compared to the same period in 2023.

The two-way flow of Chinese and foreign tourists during the Spring Festival holiday has led to a peak in global tourism consumption, which serves as a vivid example of China's win-win cooperation with other countries.

As the Spring Festival spread joy and harmony to the world, the Chinese economy also brought hope and warmth. Against the multiple uncertainties in the global economy, China's GDP grew by 5.2 percent year-on-year in 2023, demonstrating a stable and positive trend.

Recently, several global financial institutions have released economic outlook reports for 2024, all of which believe that the foundation for China's economic stabilization and recovery has been further consolidated. They expected that continuous internal driving forces, such as technological innovation and industrial transformation, would be unleashed.

Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam recently pointed out that despite challenges, China's fundamental strength is beyond doubt and continues to grow and consolidate. He believed that China possesses a robust manufacturing system and export competitiveness, as well as a wealth of talent including engineers, scientists, and skilled labor forces. These factors are considered China's significant advantages, he added.

The vibrant Spring Festival economy has set a positive tone for China's economy in the new year. China will comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, accelerate the building of a new development pattern, promote high-quality development, and consolidate and enhance the positive momentum of economic recovery.

As pointed out by Spanish market analyst and columnist Julio Ceballos, as long as China persists in deepening reforms, continuously expanding opening up, better leveraging its advantages in education and technological innovation, and fully tapping into the potential of the domestic market, the Chinese economy will have strong confidence in its development.