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By Xie Fang

During a news briefing held on Monday, officials from the Ministry of Finance (MOFCOM) analyzed the development of China’s consumption market over the past three quarters of this year, highlighting the critical role of consumption in China’s economic growth, the Securities Times reported.

“So far this year, the size of China’s consumption market has been growing steadily with the consumption structure being upgraded constantly,” said the official in charge of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the MOFCOM. “Consumption has been playing an ever-increasing fundamental role in driving the growth of the Chinese economy.”

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the retail sales of consumer goods have hit 32 trillion yuan (around 4.61 trillion U.S. dollars) during the first nine months of this year, growing by 9.3 percent year on year. On a monthly basis, the retail sale rose by 9.2 percent in September, a pace which was 0.2 percentage point higher than in August. Meanwhile, the consumption expenditures accounted for as much as 78 percent of China’s GDP growth over the past three quarters of 2018.

According to the MOFCOM, Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly interested in environmental-friendly and intelligent products with the sales of upscale home appliances like drum washing machines and ultra-high definition televisions growing much faster than that of traditional ones over the past three quarters.

Meanwhile, the proportion of the consumption on services in the overall consumption increased by 0.2 percentage point during that period to reach 52.6 percent, with China’s catering industry and box offices seeing their revenues surge by 9.8 percent and 14.9 percent respectively.

Thanks to a booming e-commerce industry, China’s online goods retails spiked by up to 27.7 percent year on year during the first nine months of 2018, which led to a 24-percent year-on-year growth in the revenue of China’s express delivery industry.

It is also worth noting that the consumption growth in China’s rural areas outpaced that in the country’s cities and towns by 1.3 percentage points during the same period.