China’s newly announced consumption action plan is the most comprehensive package of policies for boosting consumer spending that the country has released in over four decades, analysts said.
The 30-point plan, jointly released by top organs of the Chinese government and the ruling Communist Party, for the first time draws a direct link between consumption and issues such as access to affordable childcare and the country’s long-running property crisis.
“This is the most comprehensive directive on stimulating consumption since China’s reform and opening-up [in the late 1970s],” said Shi Lei, an economics professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University. “It is unprecedented as it wraps up everything that may influence spending in a professional way.”
China is under pressure to lift domestic consumption to mitigate the impact of an intensifying trade war with the United States, which is already affecting its export sector, as the government strives to hit its economic growth target of “about 5 per cent”.
The latest plan aims to “make people more confident to spend and more stable in their expectations”, said Li Chunlin, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference on Monday.