This year's May Day holiday, trade-in has become the "keyword" of the consumer market: the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that in the first four days of the holiday, the number of applications for old-for-new subsidies exceeded 60,000, driving the sales of new cars of 8.8 billion yuan; consumers purchased 3.56 million units of 12 major home appliances, driving sales of 11.9 billion yuan; and purchased 2.42 million digital products such as mobile phones, driving sales of 6.4 billion yuan.
This is a microcosm of the continued promotion of consumption and benefiting people's livelihood policies such as old-for-new consumer goods since this year. Based on the positive results of last year, the policy of exchanging the old-for-new consumer goods has increased its efforts this year, with support funds reaching 300 billion yuan, doubled. The number of home appliance support categories has expanded from 8 categories to 12 categories, increasing subsidies for purchasing new digital products such as mobile phones; in March this year, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Special Action Plan to Boost Consumption", further increasing support.
Since the beginning of this year, we have made phased progress and results in the expansion of the implementation of consumer goods trade-in. As of 24:00 on April 27, more than 120 million people have enjoyed real-money subsidy discounts, driving sales of over 720 billion yuan. On the other hand, the trend of consumption upgrading is becoming increasingly obvious. Among them, new energy vehicles maintained rapid growth. In the first quarter, 2.42 million new energy passenger cars were retailed, an increase of 36.4%, and the retail market penetration rate reached 47.2%; the mobile phone market consumption structure was optimized, and among the new subsidies for digital product purchases, mid-to-high-end models with RMB 2,000-6,000 accounted for about 76%.
Turnished by policies such as old trade-in, consumption has become one of the highlights of China's economic growth this year. In the first quarter of this year, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 4.6% year-on-year, 1.1 percentage points faster than the whole year of the previous year. The retail sales growth rates of communication equipment, cultural office supplies, household appliances, audio-visual equipment, and furniture products of units above the limit reached 26.9%, 21.7%, 19.3%, and 18.1%, respectively, fully demonstrating the resilience and vitality of China's economy.
The Central Economic Work Conference at the end of last year will "vigorously boost consumption, improve investment efficiency, and expand domestic demand in all aspects" as one of the key tasks this year. Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission has issued a notice, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, it will timely issue the second batch of 81 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds to local governments, and continue to vigorously support consumer goods for exchange for new products. In the next step, we must make good use of various policy tools, continue to actively stabilize employment, promote income growth, and reduce burdens, create effective demand with high-quality supply, continuously optimize the consumption environment, and further enhance residents' consumption capacity.
China has a population of more than 1.4 billion, a huge market size, and is in a critical stage of consumption upgrading. I believe that with the continuous efforts and effectiveness of various consumer-boosting policies, China's super-large-scale market will be further released, and while helping people's lives continue to improve, China's economy will further develop on the road of high-quality development. (China Radio International commentator Mi Di)
