Beijing's consumer market maintained its recovery trend during the January-February period, with total retail sales of consumer goods reaching 240.27 billion yuan, according to data released by the municipal statistics bureau. The figure represents a slight decline of 0.3% year-on-year, but the decrease narrowed by 2.6 percentage points compared to the full-year performance of the previous year.
Breakdown data shows catering revenue reached 20.92 billion yuan, up 1%, while retail sales of goods totaled 219.35 billion yuan, down 0.4%. Physical consumption showed signs of revival, with above-limit retail enterprises with physical stores achieving 14.6% growth in retail sales, driven by continuous promotional campaigns and active Spring Festival holiday spending. Specialized stores and department stores/shopping centers grew by 21.8% and 4.4% respectively.
The catering sector continued its recovery, particularly formats that meet consumer demands for efficiency, convenience, quality and emotional value. Coffee shops, beverage services, and fast-food establishments under the above-limit category saw revenue increases of 11.2%, 4%, and 3.1% respectively. Full-service restaurants showed improvement, with Beijing's specialty catering brands performing well.
Emerging consumption patterns demonstrated strong activity, becoming a new engine for consumption growth as Beijing's consumption supply becomes more diverse. Instant retail and other new formats expanded to meet residents' convenience needs, with above-limit convenience stores, supermarkets, and membership warehouses achieving 4.4% growth in online sales.
Emotional consumption emerged as a new trend, with consumers increasingly willing to pay for emotional satisfaction. Trendy toys and cultural creative products saw particularly strong performance, with key monitored enterprises in this category nearly doubling their retail sales.
Green and smart consumption maintained robust growth, with new energy vehicle sales under the above-limit category increasing by 3%. High-efficiency home appliances, audio-visual equipment, and wearable smart devices also showed varying degrees of growth. Meanwhile, traditional sectors like fuel vehicles continued to contract, with automotive and petroleum product sales maintaining declining trends.
Overall, Beijing's consumer market continues to improve with consumption structure upgrading trends remaining intact. The next phase will focus on implementing consumption stimulus measures, stabilizing employment, increasing incomes, expanding and upgrading goods consumption, cultivating new service consumption growth points, and stimulating new consumption vitality to promote sustained market development.
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