China's central and local governments have rolled out a slew of pro-consumption measures recently to maintain the growth momentum after the Spring Festival holiday, aiming to bolster economic recovery.

A State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday called for "timely measures to promote an early recovery of consumption as the main economic driving force."

At the meeting, various government departments were tasked with fully implementing policies for supporting consumer service businesses and self-employed individuals and promoting spending on cars and other big-ticket items. Government organizations were also directed to launch various activities to stimulate consumer spending, facilitate early recovery of contact-based service industries, and increase consumer loans as appropriate.

The central government also urged departments and local authorities to follow a city-specific approach to meet people's basic housing needs, improve housing conditions, and ensure the delivery of pre-sold homes.

Provinces and cities across China have answered the call.

Shanghai published a guideline to boost confidence and expand consumer demand, vowing to introduce multiple measures to encourage spending on big-ticket items such as home appliances and cars, revitalize cultural and tourism market, and restore exhibitions and convention sectors.

The southern Guangdong province held a meeting on Saturday to boost high-quality development of the region as it set a target of 6% increase in retail sales of consumer goods in 2023.

Shandong province laid out plans to bolster consumer confidence and the recovery of the consumer market through stabilizing employment, increasing income, and improving the business market.

Liaoning province introduced a policy package that includes providing spending subsidies, increasing support for businesses and trade market in small counties, and encouraging reasonable housing spending.

Aside from these policies aiming for consumption recovery, China’s consumer market already saw a good start in the Spring Festival holiday.

During the seven-day holiday from Jan. 21 to 27, sales revenue of China's consumption-related sectors rose 12.2% from last year's Spring Festival holiday, which ran from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, 2022, according to the State Taxation Administration.

Compared to the Spring Festival period of 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s figure saw an average annual growth of 12.4%, according to the tax authority.

In particular, consumer spending on goods and services rose 10% and 13.5% year on year, respectively, marking an annual growth of 13.1% and 8.1% from the pre-COVID levels in 2019.

During the first Spring Festival holiday since China's recent revamping of its COVID-19 response policies, many people embraced the Year of the Rabbit by travelling. Some 308 million domestic trips were made during the holiday, up 23.1% over the same period last year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This accounted for 88.6% of the amount of travel during the same holiday period in 2019, marking a significant recovery.

The revenue of domestic tourism hit 375.84 billion yuan, registering a 30% year-on-year growth and recovering to 73.1% of the 2019 level.

Data from online travel agency Trip.com Group shows that tourism reservations for this year's Spring Festival holiday skyrocketed, increasing four times from the holiday period last year, with the number of both domestic and outbound trips hitting new highs over the past three years.

Restaurants also embraced a steady rebound in the week-long holiday, as a result of people's mounting enthusiasm for traveling and family reunions. According to a survey of restaurants conducted by China Cuisine Association, respondents said they recorded a 24.7% increase in revenue over the same period last year, and a 1.9% growth from the 2019 levels.

Wang Ji, vice general manager of Beijing Jundushan Ski Resort, said this year's visitors to the resort during the holiday have basically recovered to the pre-COVID levels. "We expect warmer weather will bring more travelers back all the way through mid-February."

Chen Lifen, a research fellow at the Development Research Center of the State Council, said the pro-consumption measures introduced by the central and local governments will release the pent-up demand and create new needs for spending.

"Consumption will continue to play a fundamental role for economic growth this year, which demonstrates the strong flexibility and resilience of China's consumer market," she said.

Guan Lixin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said the improved consumer sentiment, better environment for consumption, and growing numbers of consumption hotspots will continuously support market and economic recovery.