China's consumption reports robust growth, services spending soars

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer spending reported robust growth in the first three quarters of 2023, with rapid expansion registered in services consumption, official data showed Wednesday.

The retail sales of consumer goods, a major gauge of consumption strength, went up 6.8 percent year on year in the first nine months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Total retail sales of consumer goods stood at around 34.21 trillion yuan (about 4.77 trillion U.S. dollars) in this period, according to the NBS.

In September alone, retail sales rose 5.5 percent year on year, the data revealed.

China's consumption rebounded and recovered in the first three quarters of 2023 with the economy back on track and a raft of pro-consumption policies having taken effect, Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the NBS, told a press conference.

Consumption contributed 83.2 percent to China's economic growth in the first three quarters of the year, Sheng said, highlighting that consumer spending on services had registered a rapid increase and provided an important underpinning for growth.

In the first three quarters, retail sales of services surged 18.9 percent year on year, the data confirmed.

NBS data showed that retail of goods rose 5.5 percent from a year ago in the period, while the revenue of the catering sector increased by 18.7 percent year on year.

The trend of consumption upgrading continued in this period. Retail sales of gold, silver and jewelry, as well as that of sports and recreational goods, increased by 12.2 percent and 8.3 percent year on year, respectively, in the first nine months.

Online retail sales jumped 11.6 percent year on year to 10.82 trillion yuan. In particular, retail sales of physical goods rose 8.9 percent year on year, accounting for 26.4 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods.

Wednesday's data also revealed that China's gross domestic product expanded by 5.2 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2023 to more than 91.3 trillion yuan, with 4.9-percent growth registered in the third quarter.