Do everything possible to promote the sustained recovery of consumption

　　The the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Conference held a few days ago emphasized that "consumption should play a leading role in the economic cycle", which is an important work deployed on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the economic situation. In connection with the "Opinions on Further Releasing Consumption Potential and Promoting Sustainable Recovery of Consumption" issued by the General Office of the State Council not long ago, 20 key measures in five aspects were put forward. The "combination boxing" to promote consumption in order to consolidate and develop the market of more than 1.4 billion people has aroused widespread concern at home and abroad.

　　From the perspective of national economic operation, consumption has a lasting driving force for economic development, is an important engine to smooth the domestic cycle, and is also a key link to form a higher level dynamic balance between demand and supply, which is related to the national economy and people’s livelihood. Judging from the current economic situation in China, the triple pressures of demand contraction, supply shock and expected weakening have not changed, and some unfavorable factors are still evolving in a complicated way, and the new downward pressure has further increased. In the face of the situation, tasks and severe tests, we should not only have a full understanding, but also have countermeasures. It is undoubtedly crucial to do everything possible and comprehensively implement policies to release consumption potential and promote sustained recovery of consumption.

　　Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2021, the contribution rate of China’s final consumption expenditure growth to economic growth is 65.4%, which is higher than the contribution rate of total capital formation, and it is the main driving force for the stable recovery of the national economy, and the "ballast stone" role of consumption is prominent. In the first quarter of this year, thanks to the transformation and upgrading of traditional consumption, the release of new consumption potential and the strong "blood supplement" of online consumption, the overall market sales maintained steady growth. However, since March, domestic epidemics have occurred frequently, which has had a great impact on the consumer market. In March, the total retail sales of social consumer goods decreased by 3.5% year-on-year. Residents’ trips have been significantly reduced, and contact and aggregate consumption have been greatly affected. The foundation for sustained recovery of consumption still needs to be consolidated.

　　Among the key measures put forward in the Opinions, the first one is "increasing efforts to help enterprises bail out the difficulties around the main body of the insurance market", which is a key to promoting the orderly recovery and development of consumption and thus stabilizing the basic economic disk. As the COVID-19 epidemic directly impacts the consumer, small and medium-sized enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households, it has a great impact on low-income groups and basic people’s livelihood. At present, there are more than 150 million market players in China, carrying hundreds of millions of people to find jobs and start businesses. If you keep the market players, you can keep employment; If there is employment, there will be income and consumption, which will promote economic growth. The central and local governments have introduced relief measures such as tax reduction and fee reduction, and deferred payment of social insurance premiums. Some related companies such as take-away platforms have also responded positively, helping small and medium-sized businesses tide over the difficulties by reducing commissions.

　　Practice shows that reducing taxes and fees is a direct and effective way to help enterprises get rid of difficulties. All localities should, in light of the actual situation, introduce effective measures such as tax reduction and exemption according to law, so that the intensity of tax reduction and fee reduction will only increase, so as to stabilize market expectations. In addition, the financial system should also make profits to the real economy by reducing interest rates, reducing fees and other measures, and provide financing support to enterprises in industries seriously affected by the epidemic to avoid industrial loan restriction, loan withdrawal and loan suspension.

　　Stabilizing consumption growth and promoting consumption upgrading is a systematic project. Doing a good job in ensuring the supply and price stability of basic consumer goods, promoting the upgrading of physical consumption, continuously expanding cultural tourism consumption, fully tapping the consumption potential of counties and towns, reasonably increasing public consumption, and creating a safe, secure and honest consumption environment are all important tasks to increase the weight of consumption.

　　It should be noted that the impact of the epidemic on consumption is phased. With the effective control of the epidemic and the gradual emergence of policy effects, the normal economic order will be quickly restored and consumption will gradually pick up. China has a population of more than 1.4 billion, the largest domestic market with middle-income groups in the world, and the policy support and work deployment with both far and near, and the fundamentals of long-term positive consumption will not change. We should have full confidence in this. (This article Source: Economic Daily Author: Jin Guanping)