Packed bars and mask-less catwalks: With Covid curbs fading, China set for consumption rebound

By Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo

 

People dine at a restaurant in Beijing, China October 25, 2020. Picture taken October 25, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - Over the weekend, crowds packed a former industrial warehouse in Beijing as the China Fashion Week got underway, with models strutting mask-less on a square runway and guests oblivious to social distancing norms.

 

Similarly vibrant scenes are being seen elsewhere in China as consumers return to cinemas, live performances and restaurants.

 

To many, they indicate a late-summer recovery in Chinese household spending is broadening and propelling the next stage of the economic recovery.

 

"This August, sales in the domestic (apparel) market turned from negative to positive," Zhang Qinghui, chairman of the China Fashion Designers Committee, told Reuters last week.

 

"I think the numbers for September, or even the fourth quarter, will be better."

 

Sales of consumer goods, a proxy for consumption in China, rose across the board at the end of the third quarter, led by auto purchases, as household incomes returned to positive growth and employment conditions improved after being slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The recovery made China a lone bright spot in the retail world and a major source of earnings for global consumer brands from Starbucks to Louis Vuitton.

 

Still, Chinese spending on services lagged that on goods, and sectors such as hospitality and catering sector fared particularly badly due to social distancing rules, restrictions on operating hours, and caps on capacity.

 

But with the easing of curbs gathering pace in the third quarter, the hospitality sector is poised to accelerate its recovery. Already, its contraction in output narrowed in the third quarter versus the previous three months.

 

"The services industry had been the most affected by COVID. Now, with restrictions being lifted, the industry is gradually emerging from its downturn, which would provide a strong boost to the broad recovery in the consumer market," said Ernan Cui, analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics.

 

"We expect growth would return to pre-COVID levels by the end of the year."

 

LIVE MUSIC

 

September's retail sales growth was still a third of pre-COVID-19 levels, but economists expect the overall consumer market would stage a sharp rebound in coming months, after entertainment venues from cinemas to KTVs reopened in August.

 

On Oct. 1, the first day of the "Golden Week" holiday, China's box office raked in 745 million yuan ($111.42 million), the highest single-day sales in 2020 and the second-best ever for the holiday.

 

And during the eight-day National Day break, China saw 637 million domestic tourists, though the number was only 79% of last year's total.

 

"We've returned to our old habits," said a 57-year-old Shanghai retiree surnamed Chen, who went on a 22-day self-drive tour in western Xinjiang region with her friends.

 

In Beijing, local rock bands have been playing to enthusiastic crowds each weekend at the Temple Bar nestled in Beijing's many winding "hutong" alleyways, since the bar resumed such live gigs in September.

 

"Business is more or less back to pre-COVID levels," said a staff at the bar. "All we need right now is a vaccine. With that, everything can truly return to normal."

 

The return of spending is as vital to business-to-business companies as it is to consumer-facing businesses.

 

Benjamin Barthélémy, a Parisian who runs a film production studio in Beijing, said many small entertainment businesses had started recovering from COVID-19 in the past two months.

 

"Many, many meetings, many projects are coming back - it's like the machine slowly restarts. Commercials for cars and for everything else are really good now," Barthélémy said.

 

ONLINE BOOM

 

Next month, Tmall, Alibaba Group's e-commerce marketplace, expects over 2,600 foreign brands - an all-time high - to take part in the annual online "Double 11" shopping festival with sales set for another record in its 12th year.

 

The booming online consumption is helped by an improving job market.

 

In the first nine months, China created 8.98 million urban jobs, nearly hitting the government's full-year target of over 9 million. In the third quarter, household income growth turned positive, up 0.6% year-on-year.

 

For some sectors, the recovery has taken a different form.

 

Riviera Events, a Singapore-based event management company with branches across China, did not hold any virtual event before 2020.

 

Now, half of their events are online.

 

"For an industry that was so hard-hit, we're lucky in some ways that the industry has rebounded in this way," said Stephane de Montgros, co-founder of Riviera Events.

 

"We're very hopeful that from the fourth quarter, the event industry in mainland China will be growing year-on-year."

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-10-26

 

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I see only one thing increasing in China this winter - COVID infections.

While the rest of the world tests itself into a panic and locks down completely - China rebounds.... 

 

It [China] has one of the few economies which has improved achieving 4.9% growth in the second quarter.

 

 

 

 

 

37 minutes ago, ukrules said:

I see only one thing increasing in China this winter - COVID infections.

Unfortunately I agree the virus isent finished with us humans yet

36 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

It [China] has one of the few economies which has improved achieving 4.9% growth in the second quarter.

 

According to whom? Who has given you and the world the figure 4.9%? Right, China itself.

 

8 minutes ago, dastakantattaka said:

 

According to whom? Who has given you and the world the figure 4.9%? Right, China itself.

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54594877

 

You’ll have to contact the BBC and question their facts.... its all ‘fake news’ right ?

 

 

Or you could look up Reuters, Al Jazeera...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-gdp-idUSKCN1U61CO

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/10/26/is-chinas-recovery-helping-asias-other-big-exporting-economies

 

 

Or, run a search and find whichever source you trust instead of making dumb flippant comment [Right, China itself]... 

 

 

 

Bat's are again nervous ???? 

54 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54594877

 

You’ll have to contact the BBC and question their facts.... its all ‘fake news’ right ?

You don't understand.

 

Where has the digit 4.9% has come from? Whether it be to BBC or to whatever official orgranization.

 

The only entity that gives the world the rate of growth of China or value of its GDP is China itself.

 

25 minutes ago, dastakantattaka said:

You don't understand.

 

Where has the digit 4.9% has come from? Whether it be to BBC or to whatever official orgranization.

 

The only entity that gives the world the rate of growth of China or value of its GDP is China itself.

 

In which case, nobodys numbers are to be believed.

24 minutes ago, Traubert said:

In which case, nobodys numbers are to be believed.

 

There are independent verification factors in each market which are used to verify the reliability of economic reporting. 

 

The economic data reported by China’s NBS cannot be verified quantitatively, however, strong indicators can be used such as: Caixin China Purchasing Managers Index, Commodity prices, Baidu SME Index, Tsinghua UnionPay Advisors Real Estate Index, Asian exports...

 

Each nations economy has indexes and data which independently corroborate the statistics issued by whichever agency is responsible for economic reporting. 

 

 

The key point may therefore be, before reporting what China's National Bureau of Statistics announce is the information verified before going to press. Also, not just China, but is the data from any nation verified with independent indexes and commodities and exports markets to corroborate the data provided by government bodies? 

 

 

 

Off-topic posts and replies removed. 

 

Luckily here in the states Covid will just go away..eventually......just like Mexico paying for the Wall..   (cough)

 

Just glad I dont live near any deadly cancerous windmills..Sorry Holland  ????

10 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The booming online consumption is helped by an improving job market.

 

In the first nine months, China created 8.98 million urban jobs, nearly hitting the government's full-year target of over 9 million. In the third quarter, household income growth turned positive, up 0.6% year-on-year.

Well-played, China, well-played.

 

Watch how they did it tomorrow 1pm (in Thailand) on Aljazeera.com:

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2020/5/3/coronavirus-lessons-from-asia/

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