Consumption to witness robust uptrend in 2021

Consumption is expected to see a robust uptrend in China next year on the back of strong domestic demand and various other measures, officials from the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

"Despite the COVID-19 effect in the first quarter of the year, consumption in key sectors such as automobiles, home appliances, catering sector and commodities witnessed a stable recovery in the last few months, as the strict prevention and control measures to keep the disease at bay started yielding results," said Wang Bingnan, vice-minister of commerce.

To further expand domestic consumption, China will introduce a series of measures to boost demand in sectors such as automobiles, home appliances, furniture, construction materials, catering sector and commodities, which accounted for about one-fourth of the total retail sales in China last year, he said.