Chinese premier promises targeted measures to boost consumption

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will direct more efforts to boosting consumption and lifting people's livelihoods, Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday, vowing to adopt more targeted measures to stimulate consumer spending.

His comments, reported by state media, come as the world's second-largest economy faces a property crisis and the possibility of more U.S. tariff hikes, weighing on household spending.

Top policymakers have pledged to try to bolster household incomes and consumption this year.

"Boosting consumption is not only an important way to expand domestic demand and stabilise growth, but also a major measure to transform the development model in the mid-to-long term," state media CCTV cited Li as saying in a cabinet session he chaired.

"It is necessary to make greater efforts and adopt more targeted measures to boost consumption," Li said, adding that authorities would give more prominence to consumption.

Markets and economists are watching for more stimulus measures at an annual parliamentary meeting in early March.

Those could include moves to boost consumption, as China's bright exports sector faces rising uncertainties with U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House.

So far, the biggest policy step to drive up household consumption has been an expanded consumer goods trade-in scheme, launched in 2024. More home appliances and digital goods were added to the scheme this year.

More than 3.97 million consumers had bought home appliances under the programme as of Wednesday, and more than 26.71 million consumers registered for subsidies to buy mobile phones, tablet computers, smart watches and bracelets, CCTV reported, citing commerce ministry data.

In 2024, sales of cars, home appliances, electric bicycles and other products under the scheme equalled 1.3 trillion yuan ($179.10 billion), boosting retail sales growth by more than 1 percentage point.

($1 = 7.2585 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Aidan Lewis)

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