Chinese shoppers spend briskly over New Year's Day holiday period

Chinese shoppers spent at a brisk pace over the recent New Year's Day holiday period, flocking early to retail establishments, brick-and-mortar stores, recreational activities and duty-free shops, and driving sales across shopping malls, supermarkets and restaurants, as the COVID-19 prevention and control situation entered into a more normalised phase.

All this paints a sanguine picture for consumption in 2022, a Chinese government website reported citing experts.

China UnionPay, the country's bank card association, claimed early this month that total transactions through its platforms hit a record 1.32 trillion yuan ($207.7 billion) between January 1 and January 3.

The number of transactions jumped by 24 per cent to 2.13 billion, while payments via UnionPay Mobile QuickPass, its proprietary mobile payment channel, saw a 71 per cent rise in value and 65 per cent jump in the number of transactions, it added.

In Beijing, retail sales recorded at key department stores, special shops, catering services and via e-commerce soared 18.8 per cent year-on-year to 3.89 billion yuan from January 1 to January 3, said the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau. A 35 per cent surge in consumer traffic was observed in 52 major commercial complexes in the city tracked by the bureau.

In Shanghai, offline shopping gained steam, raking in over 27 billion yuan between December 31 and January 2, up by 12.8 per cent from same period last year, said the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

Some 20 million people visited the 36 key business districts in Shanghai tracked by the commission, a 90 percent rebound in traffic flow compared to pre-COVID levels, the government agency said.

The tropical island province of Hainan, which grants Chinese consumers with an annual duty-free quota of 100,000 yuan each, enticed shoppers to spend big.

On January 1 alone, offshore duty-free shopping in Haikou, the provincial capital, amounted to 162 million yuan, up by 29 per cent year-on-year and surging by 129 per cent compared with 2020 pre-pandemic levels, said Haikou Customs. Average per capita spending there reached 8,917 yuan, adding 17.3 per cent from last year and up by 89.4 per cent from 2020.