China's consumer market scale tops world measured by purchasing power parity: minister

Measured by purchasing power parity, the scale of China's consumer market topped the world during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told a press conference on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing, Wang outlined key developments in the country's consumption landscape over the past five years.

"In terms of scale, China's consumer market has remained firmly the world's second largest, with the total retail sales of consumer goods surpassing the milestones of 40 trillion yuan and 50 trillion-yuan (about 7.1 trillion U.S. dollars) successively. Meanwhile, measured by purchasing power parity, the scale of China's consumer market has emerged as the largest globally. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's per capita GDP rose from 10,000 U.S. dollars to over 13,000 U.S. dollars, with the structure of China's household consumption demonstrating some new trends," said Wang.

Wang further noted that China's traditional consumption has shifted from meeting basic needs to pursuing quality, particularly green and low-carbon options.

A prime example is that the market penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles surged from just 5.7 percent in 2020 to 53.9 percent in 2025, he said.

Wang also highlighted strong consumption during the recent Spring Festival holiday.

"During the Spring Festival holiday, the growth rate of offline consumption surpassed that of online consumption for the first time in recent years. Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that the average daily sales of key retail and catering enterprises nationwide increased by 5.7 percent year on year. The growth rate of brick-and-mortar retail outpaced that of online retail by 3.9 percentage points," said Wang.

Looking ahead, Wang said the government will continue to implement the trade-in program for consumer goods, accelerate the cultivation of new growth drivers in service consumption, and tap into the potential of lower-tier markets to further boost consumption vitality.

China's consumer market scale tops world measured by purchasing power parity: minister

China's consumer market scale tops world measured by purchasing power parity: minister

China's consumer market scale tops world measured by purchasing power parity: minister

China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao outlined the key priorities of the 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, which opened on Friday in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province.

In an interview with CGTN ahead of the two-day meeting, Wang said free trade, digital cooperation and green economy are high on the agenda of the meeting.

"The key areas include advancing regional economic integration and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, supporting the World Trade Organization (WTO) in strengthening digital cooperation and developing green economy. At present, the international situation is marked by intertwined turbulence and chaos, with intensified geopolitical instability. The rise of unilateralism and protectionism poses serious challenges to the international economic and trade order, disrupting global and Asia-Pacific development. Against this backdrop, all parties have higher expectations for this trade ministers' meeting, hoping that it can build consensus and deliver outcomes," Wang said.

This year marks China's third time hosting the APEC meetings and the 35th anniversary of its membership.

By 2025, China had become the largest trading partner of 13 APEC economies. Trade between China and APEC economies reached 3.7 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 57.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.

China has signed 24 free trade agreements or economic and trade arrangements with 31 countries and regions, including 15 APEC economies. In recent years, China has also completed upgrades of free trade agreements with APEC economies such as Singapore and Peru.

The minister said that China has always been a firm supporter and an important contributor to APEC.

"We have actively shared our vast market and development opportunities with all parties. China's door to the world will only open wider and wider. Facing the common challenges, China will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, further deepen reform, expand high-standard opening-up, and continue to provide new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific region and the world with its new achievements in Chinese modernization," the minister said.

China's Commerce Minister outlines priorities for 32nd APEC trade ministers' meeting