China's e-commerce drives consumption growth in first 11 months

China's e-commerce sector sustained strong momentum as a key driver of consumer spending and economic activity in the first 11 months of this year, with digital products and online services leading the expansion, the Ministry of Commerce reported Tuesday.

Data shows that online retail sales continued to elevate product quality and tap into domestic demand potential. Sales of digital goods on major monitored platforms rose 8.2 percent, with smart wearables and smart robots each posting double-digit growth. Consumption of online services recorded a robust increase of 21.7 percent.

E-commerce platforms also played a central role in fostering innovation-led development. Rural online retail sales tracked by commercial big data climbed 9.8 percent from January through November.

Platforms have further solidified their position as key innovators, with average research and development intensity among leading platforms hitting 8.3 percent in the first three quarters, a level that places China among global leaders in fields such as AI cloud services and proprietary text-to-video and text-to-image large language models.

In addition, the "Silk Road E-commerce" initiative deepened international cooperation and mutual benefit. The nationwide "Silk Road Cloud Products" e-commerce promotion campaign helped lift import retail sales on monitored platforms by 5.6 percent during the first 11 months, reinforcing the role of e‑commerce as a bridge between domestic and international consumer markets.

China's e-commerce drives consumption growth in first 11 months

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday presided over a State Council executive meeting that studied work on building a unified national market and reviewed and approved a plan for the development of a modern emergency response system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Noting that building a unified national market is essential to advancing high-quality development, the meeting called for deepening institutional frameworks in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and market exit mechanisms.

The meeting also urged efforts to advance high-standard connectivity of market infrastructure to facilitate smooth economic circulation and effectively reduce logistics costs across society.

Emergency management is critical to protecting people's lives and property, the meeting said. It called for accelerating the development of a modern emergency response system, deepening reform and innovation in emergency management, and improving coordinated response mechanisms.

Efforts should be made to strengthen risk prevention at the source, enhance monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and accelerate a shift in governance toward proactive prevention, according to the meeting.

A draft revision of the Law on the People's Bank of China was also discussed and approved in principle at the meeting, which decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting