Breaking | China’s 2025 starts with rising retail sales as consumption takes centre stage

China has reported a 4 per cent growth in consumption in the first two months of 2025, a modest increase that keeps the pressure on policymakers as China strives to achieve its ambitious annual economic growth target of “around 5 per cent”.

Data for January and February is combined to smooth out the impact of the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls at a different time each year.

Leading bodies of China’s state apparatus and the ruling Communist Party issued a 30-point plan to stimulate consumer spending on Sunday, signifying consumption’s increasing importance to the overall economy.

The party’s Central Committee and the State Council, the national cabinet, pledged to promote the “reasonable growth” of incomes by boosting employment, raising the minimum wage and stepping up enforcement of the paid annual leave system. The plan also included measures to stabilise the stock and property markets.

China’s industrial output growth edged up 5.9 per cent compared with a year earlier from 6.2 per cent in December, higher than Wind’s predicted 5.13 per cent.