Sales at major retail and catering enterprises increased by 6.3 percent year on year during the five-day 2025 May Day holiday which ended on Monday, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.
The data showed that spending on services grew during the holiday, with the catering, cultural, and tourism sectors booming.
According to business big data monitoring, sales at key catering enterprises tracked by the Ministry of Commerce nationwide rose by 8.7 percent year on year during the holiday.
China's trade-in programs are also becoming increasingly popular with more than 3 million applications for car trade-in subsidies so far this year.
In the first four days of the May Day holiday, car trade-in subsidy applications exceeded 60,000, driving new car sales worth 8.8 billion yuan (about 1.21 billion U.S. dollars), the data showed.
Consumers also bought 55.16 million home appliances across 12 major categories under the trade-in program and 41.67 million digital products, including mobile phones, so far in 2025 according to official data.
During the holiday, consumers purchased 3.56 million home appliances across 12 major categories, generating 11.9 billion yuan in sales, and bought 2.42 million mobile phones and other digital products, contributing to 6.4 billion yuan in sales, according to the data.
For the May Day holiday period, sales of home appliances, automobiles, and communication equipment of the key retail enterprises tracked by the Ministry of Commerce increased by 15.5 percent, 13.7 percent and 10.5 percent year on year respectively.
The sales of smart home products on major e-commerce platforms tracked by the ministry saw a year-on-year increase of over 20 percent during the holiday, according to the data.
Sales at major retail, catering enterprises rise 6.3 pct over China's May Day holiday
