Beijing to boost its int'l consumption center city status

BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Beijing Municipality plans to boost consumption potential and shift its focus from post-pandemic recovery to sustained expansion in 2024, said the city's mayor Yin Yong when delivering a government work report at the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress on Sunday.

As one of the five pilot international consumption center cities in China, Beijing will adopt multiple strategies to boost consumption, such as the transformation and upgrade of traditional business districts, the building of international consumption experience zones, the stimulation of bulk consumption, and support for service consumption.

Data showed that Beijing's total market consumption had increased by 10.2 percent year on year in 2023. The total retail sales of consumer goods reached 1.45 trillion yuan (about 203.2 billion U.S. dollars), up 4.8 percent year on year.

The shift from a 0.7-percent decline in total retail sales of consumer goods in the first quarter of 2023 to full-year growth of 4.8 percent underlined Beijing's continuous and effective efforts to enhance policy effectiveness, unleash domestic demand potential, and collectively boost confidence, which resulted in a sustained recovery in the consumer market.