Market

by+Shen+Da

In the first half year of 2016， Chinas consumer market realized a stable growth. The retail sales of consumer goods in January-June reached RMB 15.6 trillion， going up 10.3% year on year， 0.1 percentage points higher than that of the first five months； the retail sales of consumer goods in June went up 10.6%， 0.6 percentage points higher than that in May. It is the highest growth rate of a single month this year. In June， the actual growth rate of the retail sales of the 5，000 enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce was 0.2 percentage points higher than that in May， realizing a fourmonth going up. The main features are as follows：

Online retail sales and part of entity business maintained a rapid growth. In January-June， the online retail sales of the national physical commodities was up 26.6% year on year with the accumulated growth rate speeding up for two consecutive months； its proportion in the total retail sales of consumer goods was further promoted to 11.6%， 0.6 percentage points higher than the total amount of the whole 2015. Among the entity businesses， the sales of shopping malls， convenience stores and supermarkets enjoyed a rela- tively rapid growth， with the growth rate of 7.5%， 7.3% and 6.8% respectively.

The growth rate of rural areas and Middle and Western China took the lead. The growth of rural consumption was higher than that of urban areas. In the first half year， the rural retail sales of consumer goods reached RMB 2.2 trillion， up 11.0% year on year， 0.8 percentage points higher than that of urban areas， maintaining the trend that is higher than that of the urban area since 2013. The consumer market of the Middle and Western China accelerated the growth. In January-May， Chongqing， Guizhou， Yunnan， Sichuan， Anhui and Henan realized a rapid growth of 11.4% to 12.9%.

The sales of the automobile market picked up obviously. Impacted by the upgraded consumption and new policies such as halving the automobile purchase tax for 1.6 or lower liter cars， the sales of automobiles of enterprises above the designated size in January-June was up 7.7% year on year， 2.4 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year； that in June was up 9.5%， accounting for 25.4% of the retail sales of consumer goods of enterprises above the designated size， 0.8 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year. In the first half year， the sales of automobile was up 8.1% year on year， among these， the sale of passenger car of 1.6 liter or lower liters was up 17.9% year on year； the sales of SUV was up 44.3% year on year； and the sales of new energy automobiles was up 126.9% year on year.endprint

The market of service consumption continued the expansion. In JanuaryJune， the national catering revenue was up 11.2% year on year， among which， that of the enterprises above the designated size was up 6.6%， 0.3 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year. The catering enterprises were active in transformation and development. Public catering and online take-out catering were welcomed. In June， the growth of sales of Chinese fast food of the catering enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce was 6.3 percentage points higher than that of Chinese dinner. Consumption for culture and entertainment continued to thrive. In the first half year， the national film box office totaled RMB 24.6 billion， up 21% year on year. Tourism market was in great demand. In the first half year， the Chinese civil aviation transported passengers 230 million， up 12.5% year on year.

The price of life necessities fell slightly. In January-June， CPI was up 2.1% year on year， 0.8 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year. The growth of the prices of pork and vegetable， whose price increased obviously at the beginning of the year， slowed down or decreased recently. In 36 large and medium size cities monitored by the Ministry of Commerce， the prices of agricultural products in June were up 4.3% year on year， 2.1 percentage points slower than those in May， down 3.4% month on month. The wholesale price of pork was up 0.4% month on month， and up 31.8% year on year with the year-onyear growth 4.7 percentage points slower than that of May； the prices of vegetable and eggs decreased 4.6% and 1.1% respectively year on year.

With the implementation of Chinas reform policies， the resident income increased steadily. It is expected that the consumer market in the second half year would enjoy a steady growth.

On July 7， Shen Danyang， the spokesman， responded to the hot sensitive issues highly concerned by domestic and overseas media at the regular press conference. Details are as follows.

Q： According to information， 11 departments such as the MOFCOM has recently issued a new Notification on promoting the convenient transaction of the second-hand car and activating the second-hand car market. What kind of specific promotion measures does the Notification have regarding promoting the remote transaction of the second-hand car and optimizing the registration procedure of the secondhand transaction？

A： In this March， the General Office of State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting the Convenient Transaction of the Second-hand Car， putting forward many polices and measures facilitating the transaction of the second-hand car， asking to focus on pushing to solve prominent problems such as the restriction of remote move-in， non-transparent information and poor service， actively promoting the circulation of the secondhand car and flourishing the transaction market of the second-hand car. Therefore， the MOFCOM， together with 11 departments such as the National Development and Reform Commission， the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Public Security， issued the Notification last month and proposed many specific measures on promoting the remote transaction of the second-hand car and optimizing the procedure of registration of the second-hand transaction.endprint

In terms of promoting the remote transaction of the second hand car， the new Notification defines that the legally registered mini non-operation-andpassenger vehicle can be sold， auctioned and managed within its administration area or the area that will be shifted to administrative governance. Departments of business， public security， tax and industry and commerce cannot increase conditions to restrict the transaction deals of the second-hand car.

With regard to optimizing the registration process of the transaction of the second-hand car， the new Notification defined that the second-hand car which conforms to the vehicle emission and safety standards， the validity of periodical inspection of environmental protection and the annual inspection validity can go through the move-in procedure. All business departments should choose the second-hand car transaction market conditionally to set up the service window or site and provide one-stop service of transaction， rate-paying， registration and insurance of the second-hand car through with departments related to public security， tax， industry and commerce and insurance， etc.

The Notification asks all departments to fully recognize the significance of promoting the convenient transaction of the second-hand car and activating the second-hand market. Efforts should be made to formulate specific implementation measures， to refine policies and measures and to guarantee the full implementation of all policies and measures of the Opinions on Promoting the Convenient Transaction of the Second-hand Car by the General Office of the State Council. The MOFOCM will join the relevant departments to supervise and survey the implementation situation. We believe that this Notification will play a positive role in facilitating the second-hand car transaction and accelerating activating the second-hand car market.

Q： According to the statistics of China Customs， in this January-May， the export of Chinese steel accumulated to 46.28 million tons， up 6.4% year on year. In May， the export of steel continued to increase， reaching 9.42 million tons， up 3.7% compared to that in April. Some foreign media doubt whether this might be to the disadvantage of the international steel market. How does the MOFCOM comment on this？

A： The production of Chinese steel always focuses on meeting and satisfying domestic demand. We dont encourage exporting a large number of steel products； instead， we adopt a series of practical measures to control the export of steel products. For example， on the one hand， we levy export tariff on some steel products to reduce the export； on the other hand， we actively lower the export rebate rate of steel products. At present， the tax rebate rate of all steel products is below the value-added tax rate by 17% and the taxes of some export products cant be refunded.endprint

As a steel superpower， that China hopes most is that the international steel market can be stable. Last January-May， the export volume of the Chinese steel increased by almost 30% year on year. But the growth is 6.4% in the same period this year. This growth drops 22 percentage points compared with that of last year. In this May， although maintaining its growth， the steel export only increased 3.7% month on month. This trend shows that China has been making contribution to the stability of the international steel market， rather than the opposite.

Based on the difference and complementarity of industries， the international trade of steel comes from the demands of import states. This is a market behavior in its essence. The Chinese steel products have strong market competitiveness and many steel products are highly complementary with local products. The export of Chinese steel products not only promotes the economic development of its import countries， but also brings practical benefits to the downstream users and consumers of the importers. Besides， when China exports more and more steel products， it also imports a large number of overseas iron ore. For example， in the previous five months， the imported iron ore increased 9.1% year on year. Therefore， we should treat the trade issues of steel products comprehensively， objectively and reasonably.

It is particularly important to reaffirm that implementing trade protection measures makes no contribution to solving the development issue of global steel industry fundamentally. Instead， it can only further impact the international trade order. The Chinese government still insists in using trade remedy measures carefully， restrictively and regularly， emphasizing that efforts should be made to resolve the steel trade frictions and to realize the mutual benefit and win-win result by modes such as negotiation， communication and industrial cooperation.endprint