Full transcript of policy briefing of the State Council on Jan 16, 2015

Zhong Shan:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the press, good morning. It is my pleasure to attend the news briefing and exchange views with you on China's commerce development in 2014.

In the past year, facing a complex international and domestic environment, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, we made progress and maintained stability. The overall operation of commerce has been stable with higher quality and efficiency.

Zhong Shan:

I would like to brief you on five aspects.

First, household consumption has, in general, stayed stable.

Expanding consumption is a long-term strategy of China. Over the years, the Chinese government has paid great attention to expanding household consumption and letting consumption play an increasingly fundamental role in driving economic growth. In the first three quarters of 2014, consumption contributed to 48.5 percent of GDP growth, thus becoming the biggest driver of economic growth.

Household consumption in 2014 had the following features.

1. Household consumption has seen stable expansion. The total retail sales of social consumer goods rose about 12 percent to nearly 27 trillion yuan, or about $4.3 trillion according to current rates. People used to say that China was driven by exports. This figure has proved that China is not only a major trader and exporter, it is also a major consumer. Its consumption market is the second-largest in the world, just behind the United States. It can tap great development potential as consumption tends to be more personalized and diversified. China's vast market also presents huge business opportunities to investors all over the world.

2. The structure of consumption has continued to optimize. China's online consumption has sustained rapid development and online retail sales for the whole year were estimated to grow by around 50 percent. With strong mass consumption demand, catering revenues have expanded by over 10 percent. Consumption of information equipment has witnessed a robust momentum.

3. Market operations have remained stable. By stepping up market monitoring and guiding the supply-demand connection, we have effectively solved difficulties in buying and selling frequently seen in previous years.

4. The consumer environment continued to improve. We cracked down on IP infringement and counterfeiting, and vigorously enhanced the tracing system for meat, vegetables and traditional Chinese medicine. Safety in consumption has been improved after more than 30,000 tons of 300 plus different types of agricultural products could be tracked, benefiting over 400 million people.