China's consumer market showed signs of robust recovery in the first quarter of 2025, driven by pro-consumption policies and heightened spending during the Chinese New Year holidays, according to the latest high-frequency data from the State Information Center (SIC).
The SIC's offline consumption index, a key gauge of brick-and-mortar retail activity, surged by 14.2 percent year on year in Q1, against the 9.1 percent rise in the previous quarter.
Momentum strengthened further in March, with growth of the index hitting 20 percent -- up 4.7 percentage points from the January-February period.
The offline consumption index for China's first-tier cities, second-tier cities, third-tier cities and below saw year-on-year growth of 19.6 percent, 11.4 percent and 20.2 percent, respectively.
The small commodity market heat index, tracking sales of household goods and daily essentials, jumped 16.3 percent in Q1, with March alone seeing a 21.6 percent spike.
The figures underscore resilient demand for affordable, high-frequency consumer items, signaling a broader recovery in grassroots economic activity.
The country's service sector saw a notable expansion as well, with the life services consumption heat index climbing 18.3 percent in the first quarter - 7.4 percentage points higher from the last quarter of 2024.
Among them, the leisure and dining sectors saw growth of 67.6 percent and 14.5 percent respectively.
Online searches for the Qingming Festival travel and spring outing destinations -- including keywords like "cherry blossom spots" and "hiking trails" -- skyrocketed over 400 percent in March, the SIC's internet monitoring data revealed.
China's consumer market gains momentum in Q1
China's consumer market gains momentum in Q1
China's consumer market gains momentum in Q1
China's consumer goods industry got off to a good start in 2026, with main indicators registering steady growth in the first two months, according to the data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The value added of enterprises above the designated size -- whose annual main business income reaches 20 million yuan (about 2.93 million U.S. dollars) or more -- in this sector increased by 4.8 percent year on year in January and February, accounting for 29.2 percent of the total value added, 3.1 percentage points higher than that of last year. Among the 14 major industry categories, 10 achieved positive growth.
In the two months, these enterprises achieved a business revenue of approximately 5.1 trillion yuan, up 4.4 percent year on year, while the total retail sales of consumer goods exceeded 8.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.8 percent.
"The first two months were in the traditional peak consumption season, driving the growth of orders and helping to unleash production capacity in the consumer goods industry. Some emerging consumption patterns, such as experience consumption and trendy toy consumption, grew rapidly, and the supply market showed a diversified growth trend," said Dai Xiaoxia, deputy director of the Institute of Consumer Goods Industry Research of China Center for Information Industry Development.
In terms of foreign trade, exporters above the designated size delivered consumer goods worth around 592.54 billion yuan, up 2.2 percent year on year, with the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, the papermaking and paper products industry registering relatively rapid growth.
China will increase the supply of high-quality products in the consumer goods industry, steadily promoting the intelligent, green and integrated development of the sector.
China's consumer goods industry posts steady growth in first 2 months
