Festival spending up 11.4% than last year

Source: Xinhua | 2017-02-04

CONSUMER spending during China’s weeklong Spring Festival holiday was brisk with overall expenditure topping 840 billion yuan (US$122 billion), a rise of 11.4 percent from a year ago.

Anhui, Yunnan, Guangxi and Hunan recorded the fastest growing consumer spending size, the Ministry of Commerce said. Last year, retail sales rose 11.2 percent during the same holiday period.

Shanghai’s retail sales added 10.6 percent from a year ago during the January 27 to February 2 period. Healthier eating habits pushed up sales of fruits and nutritional supplements as well as local specialty foods.

The convergence of online and offline, online booking of restaurants are new trends, suggesting consumers embrace quality spending.

The country’s biggest payment card issuer China UnionPay said yesterday that transactions at home and abroad through UnionPay cards totaled 462 billion yuan during the seven-day holiday, a surge of 48.1 percent from a year earlier. Chen Han, a data analyst of UnionPay, said the biggest spending categories were dining, shopping, traveling and transportation.

The number of UnionPay overseas transactions grew nearly 40 percent year on year. The number of overseas transactions surged in Asia, Europe and North America, the most popular travel destinations for Chinese people.