CHINA’S retail sales expanded by 3.7 percent year on year to 50.12 trillion yuan ($7.19 trillion) in 2025, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday. An expert noted that the country’s consumption has shown resilience during the past year, featuring an improved structure, and it is set to continue serving as a major engine of growth in the new year.
Consumption played a prominent role as a ballast, ranking the Chinese market among the top tier of the global retail market, NBS head Kang Yi said at a press conference on Monday.
The contribution of domestic consumption to China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth last year exceeded 50 percent, reaching 52 percent and rising 5 percentage points compared with the previous year. Consumption served as the primary driving force and stabilizing anchor of economic growth, said the official.
China reported a full-year GDP growth rate of 5 percent year on year in 2025, meeting the annual growth target of around 5 percent.
Looking ahead to 2026, despite facing pressures and challenges, there remain numerous positive factors supporting consumption growth, and the consumer market is expected to achieve steady expansion, Kang said.
The official cited strengths in China’s vast consumer base and tremendous potential amid an ongoing consumption upgrading toward higher-quality products and services.
Sun Chuanwang, a professor at Xiamen University, said that China’s consumption sector showed resilience in 2025, despite challenges such as insufficient domestic demand.
“Resilience is the key word in describing China’s consumption performance in 2025. In addition to the continual quantitative increase, the structure of consumption pattern is also evolving, with upgrading and innovation leading the trend,” Sun said.
During the year, China’s online retail sales reached 15.97 trillion yuan, up 8.6 percent year on year. Online retail sales of goods reached 13.09 trillion yuan, up 5.2 percent, accounting for 26.1 percent of total retail sales, NBS data showed on Monday.
Sales of daily necessities and goods related to trade-in programs showed strong growth momentum. Retail sales of telecommunication equipment increased by 20.9 percent last year while retail sales of household electric appliances surged by 11 percent.
The potential of services consumption was continuously unlocked, with last year’s services sector sales increasing 5.5 percent year on year, outpacing the growth of goods sales by 1.7 percentage points.
In particular, retail sales of tourism consulting and leasing services, transportation services and cultural, sports and leisure services all maintained double-digit growth, while total domestic box office revenue increased by more than 20 percent year on year.
Emerging sectors such as the silver economy, ice-and-snow economy, and debut economy are gaining sustained momentum, increasingly becoming new drivers of consumption growth, said the NBS head.
Kang said that the consumer goods trade-in policy will remain in place and undergo continuous optimization, while the first batch of ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds, amounting to 62.5 billion yuan, has already been allocated in advance.
The removal of unreasonable restrictions in the consumption sector is steadily progressing, and the implementation of these policies will provide strong support for consumption growth, he added.
In the new year, Sun said that China’s consumption sector is expected to gain further traction as local governments are expected to introduce consumption stimulus policies, focusing on optimizing or innovating consumption scenarios, tapping into local resources and creating differentiated experiences to better meet consumers’ demand for high-quality services.
Policies aimed at boosting consumption will continue to take effect, highlighting intensified efforts this year to implement initiatives aimed at revitalizing domestic consumption, along with new plans to increase the incomes of urban and rural residents. global times
