NBS interprets the consumer market data for January-August: The consumer market operates steadily, and the trend of expansion and quality improvement continues.

On September 15, Yuan Yan, Chief Statistician of the Department of Trade and Economic Affairs of the National Bureau of Statistics, interpreted the consumer market data for January-August. Since the beginning of this year, the consumer market has maintained a development trend of expansion and quality improvement, with market size steadily expanding, consumption structure continuously optimizing, retail sales of green and smart goods growing well, online retail maintaining rapid growth, and new business forms and models flourishing. As market supply gradually improves in quality and expands in capacity, consumption scenarios continue to innovate and expand, new consumption growth points emerge and are cultivated, and the consumer market maintains steady operation. From January to August, total retail sales of consumer goods and services increased by 2.5% year on year, of which service retail sales grew by 4.9% and goods retail sales grew by 1.0%, showing development characteristics of service retail improving in quality and goods retail expanding and upgrading. The original text is as follows: The consumer market operates steadily, and the trend of expansion and quality improvement continues. Yuan Yan, Chief Statistician of the Department of Trade and Economic Affairs of the National Bureau of Statistics, interprets the consumer market data for January-August Since the beginning of this year, the consumer market has maintained a development trend of expansion and quality improvement, with market size steadily expanding, consumption structure continuously optimizing, retail sales of green and smart goods growing well, online retail maintaining rapid growth, and new business forms and models flourishing. I. The consumer market has increased in volume and improved in quality, and service retail has shown good growth momentum. As market supply gradually improves in quality and expands in capacity, consumption scenarios continue to innovate and expand, new consumption growth points emerge and are cultivated, and the consumer market maintains steady operation. From January to August, total retail sales of consumer goods and services increased by 2.5% year on year, of which service retail sales grew by 4.9% and goods retail sales grew by 1.0%, showing development characteristics of service retail improving in quality and goods retail expanding and upgrading. The supply-demand adaptability of the service consumption market has strengthened, the integration of "online + offline" in the life services sector has accelerated, and information-related consumption has shown good growth momentum. From January to August, retail sales of communication and information services grew by double digits year on year. The culture, sports, and tourism leisure market maintained relatively high popularity, and related consumer demand continued to be released. From January to August, retail sales of tourism consulting and leasing services and culture, sports, and leisure services grew rapidly. II. Retail sales of consumer goods operated steadily, and retail growth in rural markets was faster than in urban areas. From January to August, total retail sales of consumer goods were 32,756.9 billion yuan, up 1.1% year on year. Retail sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles increased by 2.7%, with the growth rate flat compared with January-July, and the market operated generally steadily. Rural market growth continued to be faster than urban areas. As the commercial circulation system continued to improve, the rural consumer market environment continued to optimize, new retail channels gradually expanded into rural areas, and the vitality of the rural consumer market was further enhanced. From January to August, rural retail sales of consumer goods were 4,382.6 billion yuan, up 2.3% year on year. The cumulative growth rate of the rural market has continued to be faster than that of urban areas since August last year. According to estimates, retail sales of consumer goods in counties and townships, including towns and rural areas, accounted for 39.0% of total retail sales of consumer goods, 0.3 percentage points higher than the same period last year, and the urban-rural structure of the consumer goods market steadily optimized. III. Sales of some trade-in consumer goods accelerated, and sales of basic daily necessities performed relatively well. The consumer goods trade-in policy continued to exert effects, promoting the expansion and upgrading of retail sales of related goods. From January to August, retail sales of communication equipment by units above designated size increased by 16.3% year on year, 1.2 percentage points faster than January-July; retail sales of cultural and office supplies grew by 6.0%. In terms of the current month, in August, retail sales of communication equipment by units above designated size increased by 27.3%, 6.9 percentage points faster than July; retail sales of household appliances and audio-visual equipment increased by 2.3% on the basis of a relatively high base last year; retail sales of wearable smart devices and high-energy-efficiency household appliances continued to grow rapidly. Sales of basic daily necessities grew steadily. From January to August, retail sales of grain, oil, and food; beverages; and tobacco and liquor by units above designated size increased by 6.8%, 5.5%, and 12.4% year on year, respectively. In terms of the current month, in August, retail sales of beverages and tobacco and liquor by units above designated size increased by 4.9% and 12.5%, respectively, with growth rates 1.4 and 6.5 percentage points faster than July. IV. New business forms and models developed rapidly, and online retail grew relatively quickly. To meet residents' personalized and experiential consumption needs, physical retail enterprises actively applied various new technologies to expand sales scenario channels and innovate and optimize the consumption experience, demonstrating the development vitality of new business forms. From January to August, retail sales of warehouse membership stores and unattended stores by units above designated size both grew by more than 25% year on year, both faster than January-July; retail sales of shopping centers continued to grow by double digits; retail sales of collection stores accelerated for four consecutive months. Online retail maintained relatively rapid growth. From January to August, online retail sales of goods and services increased by 4.6% year on year, of which online service retail sales grew by 5.1%, 0.2 percentage points higher than service retail sales; online goods retail sales grew by 4.3%, 3.3 percentage points higher than goods retail sales. Instant retail, relying on advantages such as strong timeliness and rich categories, opened up Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co., Ltd. consumption scenarios and expanded digital consumption channels, maintaining relatively rapid growth since the beginning of this year. From January to August, the growth rate of instant retail transaction value continued to exceed double digits, becoming a new engine leading online retail growth. Since the beginning of this year, China's consumer market has maintained steady operation and a development trend of moving toward new and better development. In the next stage, it is necessary to continue to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, deeply implement the special action to boost consumption, enhance consumption capacity, strengthen consumption willingness, further improve the institutional mechanisms for promoting consumption, and promote the sound development of the consumer market. This article is edited from the National Bureau of Statistics. GMTEight editor: Chen Wenfang.