Retail sales for January-February increased 2.8% year-over-year

On March 16, the State Council Information Office held a press conference, and the National Bureau of Statistics introduced the economic performance for January and February 2026.

During the meeting, Fu Linghui, spokesperson, chief economist, and director of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics on the National Economy, stated that from the consumption perspective, this year’s long Spring Festival holiday significantly boosted consumption. Policies promoting replacement of old products with new ones continued to be effective. Cultural tourism and leisure entertainment markets were quite active, service consumption grew rapidly, and market sales showed a clear rebound. The total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 2.8% year-on-year in January and February, accelerating by 1.9 percentage points compared to December last year, mainly reflecting product sales; service retail sales grew by 5.6%, significantly faster than merchandise retail growth.

Daily Economic News

Fu Linghui believes that looking ahead, the upgrading of residents’ consumption structure and the strengthening of new consumption drivers remain key factors influencing consumption growth. The implementation of a series of policies to promote consumption will further support growth, and consumption is expected to continue its stable increase.

Three Trends in Consumption

How will consumption perform this year? Fu Linghui identified three main trends.

First, steady expansion of service consumption. Driven by the Spring Festival holiday, residents’ cultural tourism consumption increased noticeably, boosting related service sales. In January and February, retail sales of tourism consulting, rental services, and cultural and leisure services all maintained rapid growth of over 10%.

During the Spring Festival, nearly 600 million domestic trips were made, with total travel expenses exceeding 800 billion yuan, setting a new record. Additionally, the expansion of visa-free entry policies increased inbound tourists, further promoting domestic market sales. During the holiday, social gatherings and exchanges increased, and dining out consumption rose significantly. In January and February, catering revenue grew by 4.8% year-on-year, accelerating by 2.6 percentage points compared to December last year.

Second, upgrading and quality improvement of merchandise consumption. Residents’ consumption quality steadily improved, and the holiday-driven demand led to a significant increase in sales of basic daily necessities. In January and February, retail sales of grain, oil, food, clothing, shoes, hats, and textiles above designated size grew by 10.2% and 10.4%, respectively. The main reason for fast growth in basic necessities is the rising demand for higher quality and more fashionable products, with total food consumption limited but sales driven by increased demand for green and healthy foods. Additionally, driven by consumption upgrades, sales of development-oriented and improvement-oriented products grew rapidly, with retail sales of gold, silver, jewelry, and watches above designated size increasing by 13% year-on-year.

“Policies promoting replacement of old products continue to show effects. In January and February, retail sales of communication equipment above designated size increased by 17.8%, maintaining rapid growth; retail sales of household appliances and audiovisual equipment increased by 3.3%, a clear rebound from December. Among household appliances and audiovisual products, high-efficiency products maintained double-digit growth, reflecting an expanding demand for green products,” Fu explained.

Third, positive development of new forms of consumption. As online and digital consumption grow stronger, online retail sales continue to expand. In January and February, online retail sales of goods and services increased by 9.2% year-on-year, significantly faster than the total retail sales of consumer goods. Among these, online goods retail sales grew by 10.3%, outpacing overall merchandise retail growth and further boosting consumption. Online service consumption remained hot, with retail sales of online services increasing by 7.3% year-on-year, also faster than total service retail sales. Since the beginning of the year, the online short drama market has been quite popular, with platform data showing a growth of over 30% in transaction volume during January and February. Additionally, green consumption, health-oriented consumption, and the debut economy continue to promote consumption growth.

Fu Linghui emphasized that overall, the market showed positive changes in sales during January and February, with increased growth momentum. This is the result of combined effects from policies promoting consumption, upgrading of consumption, and the growth of new consumption drivers. Looking ahead, the upgrading of residents’ consumption structure and the strengthening of new consumption drivers will remain key factors for sustained growth. The implementation of a series of policies to promote consumption will further support this trend. Of course, building a strong domestic market and stimulating residents’ internal consumption motivation will require ongoing efforts.

Strengthening Online Service Retail Measurement

The Daily Economic News reporter noted that the data on national economic performance for January and February included a new indicator: “Online Retail Sales of Goods and Services.” What was the consideration behind this?

Fu further explained that this year, one significant change in consumption-related indicators is the first-time release of the “Online Retail Sales of Goods and Services” metric, while the “Online Retail Sales” indicator has been discontinued.

He said, “The ‘Online Retail Sales of Goods and Services’ is an optimized and improved version of the previous online retail sales indicator. The main difference is that it expands the scope of online service platforms included and enhances the measurement of online service retail sales.”

He added, “In the past, the ‘Online Retail Sales’ indicator mainly included two parts: physical goods online retail sales, reflecting online sales of tangible products, and non-physical goods online retail sales, mainly representing key platform services retail.”

With the rapid development of online services in recent years, the National Bureau of Statistics has strengthened its online service retail statistics. Based on the previous ‘Non-Physical Goods Online Retail Sales,’ the scope was expanded to include more online service platforms, and the new ‘Online Service Retail Sales’ indicator was introduced.

At the same time, the original ‘Physical Goods Online Retail Sales’ indicator was renamed ‘Online Goods Retail Sales,’ with no change in scope or content; the ‘Online Retail Sales’ indicator was renamed ‘Online Goods and Services Retail Sales.’ This adjustment results in a higher total volume for online goods and services retail sales compared to the previous online retail sales, mainly due to the increase in online service retail sales.