China's wholesale, retail grow steadily in H1: ministry

The value added of China's wholesale and retail trades totaled 6.8 trillion yuan (about 952 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2025, marking a 5.9 percent increase year on year and accounting for 10.3 percent of the country's GDP, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

Citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the ministry said in a statement on its website that since the beginning of the year, the ministry has accelerated the improvement of the modern commercial system and promoted the high-quality development of the wholesale and retail trades.

The steady and positive development of wholesale and retail sectors has provided strong support for comprehensively expanding domestic demand and strengthening domestic economy, said the statement.

In the wholesale sector, the turnover of China's key commodity markets during the six months totaled 2.8 trillion yuan, with year-on-year growth of 7.3 percent for industrial consumer goods and 0.1 percent for agricultural products. Retail sales from January to June reached 21.8 trillion yuan, representing a year-on-year growth of 5.1 percent, according to NBS statistics.

The retail sales of entities above designated size in five major formats -- convenience stores, specialty stores, supermarkets, brand retail stores, and department stores -- also registered growth in this period, with year-on-year increase of 7.5 percent, 6.4 percent, 5.4 percent, 2.4 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

Entities above designated size refer to wholesale enterprises, including companies and individual operators, with annual main business revenue of 20 million yuan or more, retail enterprises with five million yuan or more, and accommodation and catering enterprises with two million yuan or more.

Urban commerce continued to grow in the first half of the year, with the visitor flow and turnover of 50 key commercial areas under the ministry's monitor increasing by 5.2 percent and 3.4 percent year on year, respectively.

So far, the 210 pilot areas nationwide have built a total of 5,510 projects of 15-minute convenience living circle in urban communities to ensure residents' access to daily necessities within a 15-minute walk from their homes, serving 125 million people.

The county and town-level markets have shown stronger vitalities. So far, China has built or renovated a total of 155,000 commercial outlets of various types in counties, towns and villages across the country.

According to NBS statistics, from January to June, the scale of county and town-level markets accounted for 38.9 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods.

Rural e-commerce has also seen booming development. Business big data indicated that in the six months, the online retail sales of products from rural areas grew by 6.2 percent year on year, while the online retail sales of agricultural products increased by 7.0 percent year on year.

The trade-in program has further unleashed consumption potential. Over 66 million consumers have purchased more than 109 million products across 12 categories of household appliance under the program this year. Additionally, more than 69 million consumers bought more than 74 million digital products like mobile phones. Nationwide, 82,000 sales outlets have participated in the trade-in program for electric bicycles, resulting in the purchase of 9,056 million new bikes.

NBS statistics showed that from January to June, the retail sales of household appliances and audiovisual equipment in entities above designated size registered a year-on-year increase of 30.7 percent, while retail sales of communication equipment in such entities grew by 24.1 percent.

Products and services of time-honored brands have become more and more popular. Cities across the country have actively promoted the 2025 Time-Honored Brand Carnival program, achieving direct sales of 2.78 billion yuan and driving total online and offline sales to 11.62 billion yuan.

Data from platform enterprises showed that in the first half of the year, the transaction volume of dine-in services of time-honored Chinese catering enterprises increased by 25.2 percent year on year.

China's wholesale, retail grow steadily in H1: ministry

China's wholesale, retail grow steadily in H1: ministry

China's wholesale, retail grow steadily in H1: ministry

China's wholesale, retail grow steadily in H1: ministry

China's wholesale, retail grow steadily in H1: ministry

China's wholesale, retail grow steadily in H1: ministry

Protesters filled Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma on Saturday, rallying in solidarity with Venezuela and denouncing U.S. influence in Latin America.

The United States launched a large-scale military operation against Venezuela in the early hours of Jan 3, taking by force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Holding numerous flags and banners while chanting slogans intermittently, a huge crowd of protesters criticized U.S. military actions against Venezuela and the unlawful control over President Maduro and his spouse, calling for respect for national sovereignty and regional peace.

"We oppose the U.S. intervention and hegemony towards the countries in Latin America. The United States has flagrantly trampled on international law, bombed Caracas and kidnapped the Maduro couple. The U.S. interventionism has become extremely blatant. We must firmly oppose and be highly vigilant, because this is not only related to a certain country, but also to all countries," said a protester.

"We demand that the United States stop interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs. The country must immediately cease its exploitation and plundering of the countries in Latin America," said another protester.

Protest erupts in Mexico City over US military operation in Venezuela