CHINA continues to express confidence that its domestic consumer goods market will soon surpass the United States to become the world’s largest.
In the past, Chinese authorities have rarely made such comparisons for fear of triggering fierce retaliation and an escalation of efforts at containment from Washington.
However, Lian Weiliang, deputy chairman of China’s top economic planning agency has reinforced the vision as part of the country’s self-reliance strategy, which will be implemented in the 2021-25 development plan and 2035 vision.
China’s retail sales for the first time surpassed 40 trillion yuan in 2019, an increase of more than 42 per cent from 2015. It will overtake the United States to become the top consumer goods market very soon,” Lian told the China Reform Forum at the weekend, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
“We must well take advantage of our super-large market, trying to build a high-quality market system in five years.”
Retail sales in China reached 41.2 trillion yuan (US$6.2 trillion) last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which puts it around US$200 billion shy of consumer spending in the American market in 2019, said Wang Yiming, the former deputy director of the Development Researcher Centre of the State Council. (SCMP)
