China's State Council has approved the '15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption,' the first national special plan in the consumption sector, providing guidance for expanding domestic demand and boosting consumption over the next five years.
The plan sets a core target: by 2030, the overall scale of the consumer market will continue to expand, with total retail sales of consumer goods reaching around 60 trillion yuan, a marked increase in the household consumption rate, and rapid growth in consumption of goods and services across society. In 2025, total retail sales of consumer goods exceeded 50.1 trillion yuan.
Improving consumption capacity is listed as a separate chapter. The plan requires implementing an employment-first strategy, improving employment promotion mechanisms, supporting various business entities in stabilizing and expanding employment, and refining mechanisms for determining, reasonably increasing, and ensuring payment of workers' wages. Meanwhile, the plan proposes gradually raising the basic pension for urban and rural residents, reasonably increasing the financial subsidy standard for basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents, and implementing long-term care insurance.
Promoting service consumption quality and benefiting the people is ranked first among key tasks. Addressing the needs of the elderly and children, the plan implements county-level elderly care service improvement projects, expands the supply of inclusive elderly care services, and improves the pricing mechanism for inclusive childcare services. In the housing sector, the plan proposes optimizing the supply of government-subsidized housing, increasing the supply of improved housing based on city-specific policies, regulating the housing rental market, and implementing housing quality improvement projects to build safe, comfortable, green, and smart 'good houses.'
The plan also includes nine special columns focusing on consumption needs such as elderly care, childcare, culture and tourism, and health. In terms of the consumption environment, the plan proposes using technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality to empower lifestyle services and scenic spots and neighborhoods, supporting the upgrading of commercial districts and streets into immersive and interactive diversified consumption scenarios, and optimizing the inbound consumption environment to build the 'Buy in China' brand.