China hopes for a bumper lunar new year as world’s biggest migration begins | China

Chinese officials hope this year’s extra-long lunar new year holiday will provide a boost to the country’s economy, where boosting domestic spending has been identified as a key priority for next year.

The government expects 9.5 billion passenger trips across China during the 40-day spring festival period, a record increase from last year’s 9 billion trips. Hundreds of millions of people will travel across the country to make what is usually their only trip back home to see family for Chinese New Year celebrations.

Although China is no longer the world’s most populous country, it will lose this title to India in 2023. Chunyun, or “spring migration” is still the world’s largest mass human migration.

The public New Year holiday will be nine days this year instead of the typical eight, giving people a longer break to enjoy the holidays hongbao, red money packets given to relatives during the festive period. The holiday period is February 15-23, with New Year’s Day falling on February 17.

China will introduce the year of the horse, which is said to represent optimism and opportunity, into a period that represents a transformation similar to the molting habit of reptiles following the year of the snake.

An article recently published by the propaganda department of Jiangsu province clearly laid out the government’s hopes for the festive period: “The spring festival culture and tourism consumption month, driven by holiday consumption, takes the lead in stimulating domestic demand.” Using an expression that literally means “ten thousand galloping horses,” the ministry wrote that the holiday would help “unleash the increased vitality that drives China’s economy forward.”

To help make this astrological power a reality, the central government said it would distribute more than 360 million yuan ($52 million) of consumer coupons in February.

“There is no doubt [lunar new year] It “provides a huge boost for retailers and consumer services providers in what could otherwise be a pretty dull February,” said George Magnus, research fellow at Oxford University’s China Centre.

But at the macro level, China’s economy still suffers from Chinese households saving an unusually large share of their income (about a third), and GDP growth is fueled by exports to other countries.

Last year, national retail sales, a measure of consumer spending, rose 3.7%, falling short of the overall GDP growth rate of 5%.

Increasing demand in the country will be a priority in China’s next five-year plan, an economic planning document that will be approved by the country’s parliament in March. The communist party has already said it will focus on “strongly increasing consumption”.

In January, the national development and reform commission announced that it would prepare an action plan to increase domestic demand over the next five years.

One of the areas of opportunity is the service sector, such as elderly care, entertainment and health, which grew by 5.5% last year. These sectors are relatively underdeveloped compared to consumer goods, which means there is more room for growth.

Cinema is a particularly popular New Year’s event. Last year, Ne Zha 2, an animation about a demonic child, became a huge success in China, grossing 4.8 billion yuan at the box office in its first week after its New Year’s release. It became the best-performing film in Chinese cinema history, earning more than 14 billion yuan.

It remains to be seen whether this year’s comedy-action movie Pegasus 3 and the national security-themed blockbuster Scare Out can repeat the success of Ne Zha 2.

One of the services that gained popularity for a short time was offered by the distribution platform called UU Paotui. The courier services company recently launched a product called “surrogate Chinese new year visits.” For 999 yuan ($145), a user can book someone to visit elderly relatives and perform traditional prostration rituals that children perform for their parents, and livestream the encounter to the customer. However, following reactions to the disruption of traditional rituals, the company withdrew the service.

Additional research by Lillian Yang