China’s traditional Lunar New Year splurge continued into the Year of the Dog, with high-tech consumer goods playing a stronger role alongside festive favorites, such as movie-going and eating out.
Sales at restaurants and shopping malls jumped 10.2 percent to about 926 billion yuan (US$146 billion) during the holiday, which lasted from Feb. 15 to 21 in the nation, compared with last year’s holiday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said.
Consumer durables such as floor-sweeping robots were particularly popular shopping items.
At the box office, takings surged by 52 percent, led by local comedy franchises Monster Hunt 2 (捉妖記2) and Detective Chinatown 2 (唐人街探案2). Revenue from domestic tourism rose 12.6 percent to 475 billion yuan, with Southeast Asian nations the top outbound destination, the Chinese National Tourism Administration said.
Onshore Chinese consumer shares related to travel and film advanced yesterday morning, the first workday following the holiday, backed up by the strong tourism and box office numbers.
Analysts from China International Capital Corp (中國國際金融) wrote in a report that they expect box office takings to increase by more than 25 percent this year.
About 390 million passenger trips were estimated to have been made by rail during the holiday, up 8.8 percent from the equivalent period last year, according to railway corporation data cited by Xinhua news agency.
China’s factories and offices shut down for the week-long holiday, which unleashes the largest migration of humans on the planet.
The spending data underscores China’s long-term shift toward a consumption-led economy, and away from old-style investment and export-driven growth. Data from purchasing manager surveys for this month, due next week, are to give further clues as to whether the world’s second-largest economy is maintaining its pace from last year, when it posted the first full-year acceleration since 2010.
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