Since the beginning of this year, China's economy and society have returned to normal operation as the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus epidemic has taken a steady turn. Policies to promote consumption have continued to exert their power, and the consumer market has been stabilizing and picking up.

In the first quarter, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 11,492.2 billion yuan, up by 5.8% year on year, reversing the trend of 2.7% decline in the fourth quarter of last year. Final consumption, which contributed 66.6% to economic growth, once again became the most important factor driving economic growth among the three major demands. The recovery of the contact-based cluster service industry, which had been affected by the epidemic, was particularly prominent. At the same time, the employment situation is gradually improving, the consumption scenario is constantly increasing, the consumer confidence has improved, and the average propensity to consume has increased. In the first quarter, the average propensity to consume was 62 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

Given the uncertainties in the external environment, the key to this year's economic recovery and the focus of policy support remains the expansion of effective social demand, particularly the active expansion of domestic demand.

At present, we should seize the favorable opportunity and continue to adopt targeted measures to maintain the momentum of consumption recovery. We should continue to give priority to the recovery and expansion of consumption, and introduce policies to stimulate consumption recovery in a faster and more timely manner for the parts of consumption affected by the epidemic, especially offline consumption, so as to boost consumer confidence and restore market vitality. At the same time, we need to take a long-term view, improve consumption conditions, innovate consumption scenarios, upgrade consumption and unleash its potential.

To further expand consumption, we need to maintain a stable foundation. The foundation of expanding consumption lies in the continued improvement of the overall economic performance. Since April, the executive meetings of The State Council have made continuous arrangements for stabilizing employment and further strengthened policy guidance. While maintaining the overall stability of employment policies, we have optimized and adjusted phased policies and increased support for weak links in a targeted way to ensure people's wellbeing. More importantly, economic recovery is at a critical stage. Fiscal, monetary, employment and industrial policies need to be more coordinated to create synergy in promoting development and consolidate and expand the momentum of economic growth in the first quarter.

To further expand consumption, we need to tap potential. Urban consumption should be explored from the convenience of consumption. In line with the principle of "what is missing and what is replenishment", urban policies should not be based on one standard or one model to expand consumption. Instead, they should reflect individualization, diversification and peculiarity, constantly optimize the spatial layout of urban consumption, improve consumption carrier facilities, improve intelligence and facilitation, and enrich diversified forms of consumption. To tap the potential of rural consumption, we should adhere to a problem-oriented approach, improve the weak links in county commercial development, speed up the improvement of rural consumption environment, adhere to the principle of marketization, and give full play to the guiding role of fiscal funds. We will renovate and upgrade a number of large stores in towns and townships and new convenience stores in rural areas, improve the logistics and distribution system in counties and rural areas, and promote the recovery and expansion of rural consumption to better support rural revitalization.

We should expand channels to further expand consumption. To innovate the consumption scene, expand integration, optimize experience. We will support the healthy development of new forms and models of business, such as live-streaming e-commerce and instant retail, encourage local governments to create more new scenarios for integrating business, tourism, sports and sports consumption, promote the innovative development of time-honored brands, expand brand quality consumption, promote green, healthy, smart, fashion and other new consumption sources, and create new growth points of consumption.

Overall, since the beginning of this year, the overall consumption has shown a good trend of recovery, but it cannot be ignored that residents' willingness to consume still needs to be further improved. Going forward, we will make every effort to increase personal income, actively increase quality supply, effectively combine expanding domestic demand with supply-side structural reform, enhance effective supply, stimulate consumption, unleash consumption potential, promote economic development, and improve people's wellbeing.