Consumption upgrades, where does the money go？ Where can consumption tap the potential？
CCTV News:This year’s "Government Work Report" pointed out that it is necessary to promote the steady growth of consumption, and take measures to increase the income of urban and rural residents and enhance their spending power.
In 2018, the total retail sales of consumer goods in China exceeded 38 trillion, and consumption became the "main engine" of economic growth for five consecutive years; In 2019, we will promote the formation of a strong domestic market, continuously release the potential of domestic demand, make up for shortcomings in services, and adapt to new demands. Consumption upgrades, where does the money go? Where can consumption tap the potential?
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According to the preliminary accounting data of the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s GDP in 2018 was 90.03 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.6% over the previous year. The contribution rate of final consumption expenditure to GDP growth in the whole year was 76.2%, an increase of 18.6 percentage points over the previous year.
Where does the consumption upgrade money go?
Yang Chengzhang: Information, health, culture and tourism are the new consumption trends.
Yang Chengzhang, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference: The proportion of digital consumption and information consumption is increasing, and a large amount of consumption is obtained through digital information. Healthy consumption and cultural consumption are also a trend of high-quality consumption. For example, it can be seen from a family of four generations that each level has its own consumption hotspots and consumption patterns, especially the elderly and children, who were relatively disadvantaged groups in consumption, but now these two groups are precisely places with great potential. On the whole, China’s consumption potential is still very large. The problem is how to release the potential, become the current consumption hotspot, and drive consumer demand, which is very important for our current economic growth.
Crown: Engel coefficient innovation is low, "good life" becomes mainstream
Wang Guan, financial commentator of Yangguang: Engel coefficient refers to the percentage of money spent by a person or a family on food, which accounts for the income of the whole family. In 1978, China’s Engel coefficient was 58%, and about 60% of Chinese’s money was spent on food. Last year, our Engel coefficient dropped to 28.4%, which is a very great achievement. Today, Chinese spends less than 30% on food.
So where did the money go? It is understood that in 2018, the box office of Chinese movies reached about 60 billion yuan, while domestic tourism reached 5.5 billion, and outbound travel was close to 150 million. In other words, people have turned to cultural consumption, from traditional dietary consumption to more consumption that meets people’s needs for a better life.
Where does the potential of consumption go?
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According to the Ministry of Commerce, there are three major measures to promote consumption this year: First, promote urban consumption and promote consumption upgrading, including upgrading a number of pedestrian streets and optimizing the layout of convenience stores; The second is to expand rural consumption and promote agricultural products to enter the city and industrial products to the countryside; The third is to develop service consumption, optimize service supply, and focus on filling shortcomings such as old-age care services and domestic services.
Yang Chengzhang: The consumption concept should be innovated when changing the consumption pattern.
Yang Chengzhang, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference: The consumption concepts of different income groups are in the process of collision between the old and the new. For example, older people may not understand the moonlight clan born in 1980s and 1990s, because the traditional culture of China advocates frugality and housekeeping, so they should save money to live, not borrow money. But saving money to live is a way, and borrowing money to live is also a way. Saving money is to use the value created now in the future, and borrowing money to live is to have confidence in the future, so everyone’s consumption concept is changing, and there is still a lot of room for improvement here.
In addition, consumption patterns should be constantly innovated. For example, a house should not only be large, but also comfortable. In some developed countries, although the house area is not large, the decoration is particularly particular. Therefore, we should follow the house to explore consumption, follow the car to explore consumption, follow the mobile phone to explore consumption, follow the high-speed rail to explore consumption and fully tap the consumption potential.
Crown: Driving High-quality Employment by Consumption Upgrading Dongfeng
Wang Guan, commentator of Yangguang Finance and Economics: It is very important to promote consumption in order to stabilize growth. Steady growth is actually to stabilize employment, and employment is the biggest livelihood.
With stable employment and increased income, we will have confidence. We should take advantage of the east wind of consumption upgrading to promote high-quality employment. For example: B&B renovation. In some rural areas of Shandong and Zhejiang, the rebuilt homestay is even more expensive than a five-star hotel, and it brings a series of production work, such as water and electricity heating, pipeline design and construction of the whole appearance, and so on.
In addition, how to develop and use the network online and how to publicize it have brought more detailed work needs, so with the consumption upgrading, the whole employment will be upgraded.
Yang Chengzhang: Consumption is the stabilizer of economic growth.
Yang Chengzhang, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference: Consumption is the stabilizer of current economic growth, because the contribution rate of consumption reaches 78%. At present, GDP growth in the world is on the decline, and it is still difficult for our external demand to increase substantially. What does China rely on under such circumstances? It depends on consumption. When consumption stabilizes, the economy will naturally stabilize. This year, the government’s series of policies focus on two points: one is consumption, and the other is private enterprises. The consumption potential is the greatest, because the population of 1.4 billion is the largest market.
Crown: Seize the strategic opportunity period of consumption upgrading to promote the high-quality development of China economy.
Wang Guan, financial commentator of Yangguang: Seize the strategic opportunity period of consumption upgrading and promote the high-quality economic development of China. In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, we have enjoyed huge dividends, and the domestic demand is unprecedented. Not only China, but also the whole world is very optimistic about this strong consumer demand, so our supply-side structural reform should keep up with this rhythm.
Today, consumers in China have changed from buying cheap and affordable products to buying quality and brands. Under such circumstances, how can China’s economy reach a new level? We bid farewell to the shortage economy in the past and entered the quality economy today. To realize the high-quality development of China’s economy, we need a series of supporting measures. This issue deserves our long-term consideration.