The State Council has approved in principle the 15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption, and has tasked the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce with its earnest implementation. The plan is designed to continuously expand domestic demand and vigorously boost consumption, formulated in accordance with the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development.
The plan sets key targets for 2030: relatively rapid growth in consumer spending on goods and services, with total retail sales of consumer goods reaching around 60 trillion yuan; a marked increase in the household consumption rate and a steady rise in the proportion of service consumption expenditure, further strengthening consumption's role as a foundation for economic growth. Additionally, the consumption structure will be optimized, digital consumption will expand, and urban-rural and regional consumption gaps will gradually narrow. Household income growth will be synchronized with economic growth, social security will become more robust, the consumption supply system will be more complete, the consumption environment will be significantly improved, and institutional mechanisms for promoting consumption will be further refined.
Centered on these goals, the plan makes comprehensive arrangements in areas including service consumption, goods consumption, new business forms and models, consumption capacity, consumption environment, institutional mechanisms, and implementation organization. In service consumption, it calls for improving quality in dining, accommodation, and domestic services; expanding elderly care and childcare consumption; developing cultural, tourism, health, and sports consumption; and enhancing education and training consumption. For goods consumption, the focus is on promoting major durable goods consumption, including housing and automobiles, as well as smart upgrades for home appliances and furniture; it also aims to improve the supply of agricultural products and daily consumer goods, strengthen independent brand building, and promote technological application and product innovation.
Regarding new business forms, the plan proposes developing digital consumption, promoting green consumption, advancing the debut economy, cultivating experiential consumption, and expanding inbound consumption. To boost consumption capacity, measures include promoting high-quality and full employment, increasing household income through multiple channels, improving social security, and reasonably increasing public consumption. In the consumption environment, efforts will focus on upgrading consumption quality standards, protecting consumer rights, creating a fair and open market environment, and improving the multi-level consumption system and consumption infrastructure.
On institutional mechanisms, the plan requires cleaning up and optimizing unreasonable restrictive measures, improving fiscal and financial support mechanisms, and implementing rest and vacation systems. In its approval, the State Council specifies that provincial, autonomous regional, and municipal governments should make expanding consumption a key task for their regions during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, exploring effective approaches based on local conditions; relevant State Council departments should refine policy measures according to their responsibilities and strengthen coordination. The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce are to enhance overall coordination and carry out dynamic monitoring and evaluation of plan implementation.