Affected by the epidemic, the willingness to consume is insufficient, and the catering industry has fallen significantly.
On May 16, the National Bureau of Statistics of China released consumption data from January to April. From January to April, the total retail sales of consumer goods was 13,814.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2%. Among them, the total retail sales of consumer goods in April was 2,948.3 billion yuan, down 11.1% year-on-year. In April, catering revenue and retail sales of automotive goods fell by 22.7% and 31.6% year-on-year, respectively.
According to the analysis by the Institute of Financial Information Research, the decline in consumption in April was mainly affected by the short-term impact of the epidemic.
From the perspective of total consumption, the main feature of April is that the sales of non-essential goods and catering were obviously affected by the epidemic, which lowered the growth of total retail sales of consumer goods.
Catering revenue in April was 260.9 billion yuan, down 22.7% year-on-year, accounting for 8.8% of total retail sales of consumer goods.
Restricted by the spread of the epidemic, some offline consumption turned to online, pushing up online retail sales. In addition, with the development of digital technology and the improvement of logistics speed efficiency, online consumption can better meet people’s demand for scenario-based, personalized and experiential consumption.
