Tourists visit Xiangdong Street of Xinhua County, central China's Hunan Province, Oct. 2, 2023. The Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period, which lasts from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6 this year, is a peak travel and tourism season in China. (Photo by Wu Yonghua/Xinhua)
BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday has brought a tourism consumer market boom that highlighted the vitality and resilience of China's economic development.
Although certain Western media organizations and analysts take a pessimistic view on China's economy, the consumer market data from the country's exuberant consumer market during the "super golden week" has demonstrated convincingly that their gloomy sentiment is unnecessary.
People in China made 826 million domestic tourist trips during the holiday, an increase of 71.3 percent from last year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The revenue of the tourism sector increased 129.5 percent year on year to approximately 753.4 billion yuan (103.2 billion U.S. dollars) during the period.
According to the online platform Meituan, the average daily spending on service retail sales soared 153 percent from the same period in 2019, making this year's golden week the busiest of the last five years.
The holiday consumer market data has consolidated confidence in the recovery of social consumption, and demonstrated increasing domestic demand for goods and services, which leads to economic growth.
The consumption potential of the Chinese market has been released this year, with the government rolling out a slew of policies to boost domestic demand.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in the first eight months, the total retail sales of consumer goods in China increased 7 percent year on year, and retail sales in services grew 19.4 percent.
The recovery of China's economy has recently prompted many international financing institutions to raise their forecasts for the country's economic growth this year.
Citigroup and J.P. Morgan have raised their forecasts for China's annual economic growth to 5 percent. The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group raised its economic growth forecast for China to 5.1 percent.
Other growth indicators are also encouraging. The purchasing managers' index for China's manufacturing sector came in at 50.2 in September, bouncing back to expansion territory after four consecutive months of growth. China's major industrial firms saw a strong rebound in profits in August, surging 17.2 percent from a year earlier and representing the first increase since the second half of 2022.
The results of a host of pro-growth policies are beginning to show. Certain Western think tanks and media continue to exaggerate and hype up the current difficulties in China's post-COVID economic recovery. Facts will prove them wrong.
The booming consumer market during the holiday has provided clear signs of China's economic resilience, enormous potential and strong vitality. China has the ability to realize its economic goals for the year.
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