Dig deep into hot spots and release residents' consumption potential

In 2021, in the process of experiencing the repeated COVID-19 epidemics and the complex and ever-changing foreign environment, my country's consumer market has fully established a recovery trend, and its resilience and momentum have become increasingly prominent. The total retail sales of consumer goods in the whole year reached 44,082.3 billion yuan, an increase of 12.5% ​​over the previous year, and the average growth rate for the two years was 3.9%. The contribution rate of final consumption expenditure to economic growth was 65.4%, exceeding the level before the epidemic. Consumption returned to the status of the first driving force of economic growth, and achieved a good start for the "14th Five-Year Plan" consumer market.

At the same time, in 2021, the consumer market will also face relatively obvious downward pressure on contraction, and the consumption tendency of residents will recover to 68.6%, which is 1.5 percentage points lower than the level in 2019 before the epidemic. Behind this, there are not only the inertial reasons for the short-term decline in consumption in some areas caused by the repeated short-term epidemics, but also some new problems of poor consumption power conversion and continuity.

Based on this, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed a decision-making arrangement to promote the continuous recovery of consumption. In order to implement the spirit of the meeting, the National Development and Reform Commission recently released the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in Promoting Consumption in the Near Future" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). Focusing on the current hot spots and key points of the consumer market, the notice proposes many targeted and down-to-earth measures, which are a timely and effective response to the prominent downward pressure on consumption, and are of great significance for stabilizing consumption expectations, activating consumer confidence, and stabilizing consumption momentum.

First, the notification responded to the current consumption hotspots in a timely manner, and pinpointed the key points and keys to promote consumption. For example, as the Chinese New Year is approaching, the notice has put forward a series of powerful and effective safeguard measures around the areas of concern and concern for the common people, such as the convenience of personnel movement, the guarantee of convenient services, and the abundance of meals for the New Year’s Day. "Quality Upgraded Version", which not only reflects the forward-looking policy, but also conveys a strong human touch. Another example is that on the eve of the Winter Olympics, there is a boom in ice and snow consumption in various places. The notice proposes a series of guidance and support measures to take advantage of the trend to expand residents' ice and snow consumption, which is conducive to further activating and amplifying residents' enthusiasm for new sports consumption.

Secondly, the notice conforms to the trend of consumption digitization, green innovation and upgrading, and has obvious characteristics of the times. Digitization is the main driving force for the recovery and expansion of my country's consumer market. Since the epidemic, new online consumption innovations such as social e-commerce, vertical e-commerce, live streaming, and community group buying have become more active. Digital technologies have accelerated to empower offline and promote wisdom. Retail innovation accelerated. The notice proposes to further stimulate the new vitality of smart retail to meet new consumer demands such as "home economy" and "cloud life", which is conducive to continuing to stimulate new vitality of online consumption. In addition, a series of specific support directions are put forward around green consumption, forming effective guidelines for guiding residents to cultivate a green, healthy, economical, and low-carbon lifestyle.

In addition, the circular carried out comprehensive and systematic planning and targeted policy design around key groups such as the elderly and children, people in need, and migrant workers, as well as key areas such as counties and villages, reflecting the people-centered development philosophy.

On the basis of fully implementing the requirements of the notice, we must also pay attention to the combination of far and near, and take multiple measures simultaneously. We must not only promote the steady start of the economy in the first quarter of this year by promoting consumption, but also accelerate the construction of a domestic demand pattern with household consumption as the main body, and implement and expand The domestic demand strategy continuously enhances the endogenous driving force for development. On the basis of continuing to maintain the stability of macro policies and increasing policy support for stabilizing enterprises and employment, policy obstacles should be effectively removed, and the suppressed consumption potential should be fully released, especially the mid-to-high-end consumption potential that is being accelerated; Supply-side structural reform, strengthen the ability of supply to lead and drive, and accelerate the upgrading of goods and services supply; take digital empowerment as the starting point to promote the integration and innovation of online and offline consumption; take the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities as the guide to accelerate multi-level consumption Market coordination and mutual development; make up for the shortcomings of rural consumption facilities, strengthen the construction of agricultural product supply chain system, expand the coverage of e-commerce in rural areas, and inject new development momentum into the sinking market; rationally increase policy support to promote consumption improvement and upgrading.