The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in January-February 2026, China’s consumer market was steady and improving, the policies to boost consumption continued to take effect, the pulling effect of the super-long Spring Festival holiday was prominent, market sales grew steadily, and service consumption and online consumption became the core growth engines.
On the whole, the total retail sales of consumer goods in January-February reached 8.60789 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.8% year-on-year, 1.9 percentage points faster than that in December of the previous year. The rural market performed brightly, with retail sales increasing by 3.2% year-on-year, 0.5 percentage points faster than that in urban areas. The proportion of county and rural markets increased to 38.5%, and the return home tourism and county tourism drove the release of rural consumption potential.
Service consumption showed explosive growth, with a year-on-year growth rate of 5.6%, 3.1 percentage points higher than that of commodity retail sales. During the Spring Festival, 596 million domestic trips were made nationwide, with a total tourism expenditure exceeding 800 billion yuan, a record high, driving double-digit growth in service consumption such as tourism, catering, cultural, sports and leisure, and catering income increased by 4.8% year-on-year.
In commodity consumption, basic living commodities performed strongly, with retail sales of grain, oil, food and clothing increasing by more than 10%; the policy of replacing old products with new ones took effect, retail sales of communication equipment increased by 17.8%, and the growth rate of high-energy-efficiency household appliances exceeded double digits. Online consumption remained active, with retail sales increasing by 9.2% year-on-year and live e-commerce transaction volume increasing by 16.2%, becoming a new driving force for consumption. With the in-depth implementation of subsequent policies to boost consumption, the consumer market is expected to continue to pick up.
