China's consumer goods trade-in program spurs car, home appliance sales

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- A consumer goods trade-in program rolled out by the Chinese government in March has spurred rising sales of products such as cars, home appliances and furniture.

As of June 25, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has received a total of 113,000 subsidy applications for vehicle trade-ins. In the past week alone, new applications saw a rapid surge, reaching 36,000, according to MOC data released on Tuesday.

As the government advances this program, car sales have continued to rise in China, the world's largest auto market. In May, retail sales of cars exceeded 2.27 million units, up 8.7 percent year on year, while sales of new energy passenger vehicles soared 38.5 percent, the data showed.

As for home appliances, retail sales reached 74.3 billion yuan (about 10.4 billion U.S. dollars) in May, up 12.9 percent. The sales value of furniture for home decor, kitchens and bathrooms also rose by 4.8 percent year on year in May, 3.6 percentage points higher than the previous month, according to the data.

The consumer goods trade-in program is part of China's efforts to boost domestic demand and support economic growth.