The Ministry of Commerce will roll out new measures to boost service consumption, as part of broader efforts to spur domestic demand and unleash consumption potential, a commerce official said at a press conference in Beijing on Monday.
Vice Minister of Commerce Yan Dong elaborated on the ministry's focus on three key areas to expand service spending. They are to optimize service supply, cultivate new growth drivers in service consumption and innovate and diversify consumption scenarios.
In 2025, China's retail sales in the service sector rose 5.5 percent year on year while its nationwide per capita consumption expenditure on services grew by 4.5 percent, accounting for 46.1 percent of per capita consumption.
This trend will be sustained in the new year by nationwide efforts to innovate consumer services and improve the overall consumption environment, with vibrant growth in sectors like culture, tourism, entertainment and sporting events, Yan said.
"We will expand high-level opening up of the service sector, deepen pilot programs in areas such as cloud computing, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, guide foreign investment towards service consumption, and enrich the supply of high-quality and diversified services," he said.
The ministry will step up efforts to foster new growth spots in transportation services, household services, online audiovisual services, travel services, automotive aftermarket services, and inbound consumption.
Service consumption is a major driving force in the growth of China's consumer market. For example, concerts and music festivals have gained widespread popularity, while community-based sports events like "Village BA" and "Su Super League" have gone viral.
The ministry will pilot new business formats, models, and scenarios in consumption, promote the integrated development of commerce, tourism, culture, sports, and health, and create a batch of new consumption scenarios with broad impact and high visibility.
"With key promotional consumption activities such as the 'service consumption season' and the 'Chinese gourmet festival,' we will guide local authorities to create integrated consumption scenarios like 'tourism+,' 'gourmet+,' 'sports+,' and 'IP+.' This aims to provide the public with more diverse, exciting, and convenient consumption experiences," Yan said.
Final consumption expenditure contributed 52 percent to China's economic growth in 2025, up by 5 percentage points compared with a year earlier, making it the main driver and a stabilizing anchor of economic growth.
Official unveils fresh measures to boost service consumption
