MOC: Spring Festival holiday gives sales revenues a boost

The Spring Festival holiday, also a peak season for consumption, has seen strong sales revenues and rich festive mood this year, and China's overall consumption market is expected to show a steadily growth trend in the first quarter, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

Over the holiday period, sales of key retail and catering enterprises in China increased by 4.1 percent year-on-year. Food, festive products, green and smart home appliances, mobile phones and tablets recorded booming sales, data from the ministry showed.

In particular, sales of household appliances and communication equipment from retail enterprises that are monitored by the commerce ministry jumped by over 10 percent year-on-year.

Besides, the service consumption market has shown full vitality with high consumer demand of dining, traveling, and watching movies and dramas. Sales of catering firms monitored by the ministry grew by 6.2 percent on a yearly basis.

Ice and snow tourism, and cultural and museum tourism have seen continued popularity.

During the holiday period, total domestic travel expenditure reached 677 billion yuan ($92.9 billion), up 7 percent year-on-year. Some 500 million passenger trips were taken domestically, up 5.9 percent year-on-year.

Meantime, the Spring Festival holiday box office hit 9.51 billion yuan, a record high.

"Looking ahead, China's consumption market has indicated a strong resilience, great potential, and sufficient vitality, and the basic trend of recovery and improvement remains unchanged," said He Yongqian, a spokeswoman for the ministry.

She added that with the country's expansion of the trade-in policy for consumer goods, and various consumption promotional activities being carried out, the overall consumption market will show a steadily growth trend in the first quarter.