The person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce's Consumer Promotion Department talks about the situation of China's consumer market in August 2025.

In August, the overall consumption market maintained a stable operation. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of consumer goods in that month reached 3.97 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.4% year on year, with the growth rate 1.3 percentage points higher than the same period last year. From January to August, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 32.39 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%, with the growth rate 1.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year. New forms of consumption are developing rapidly. Digital consumption, green consumption, health consumption, and other new forms of consumption continue to grow. From January to August, the national online retail sales reached 10 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.6% year on year. Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods reached 8.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.4%. In August, the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles increased by 7.5% year on year, with a penetration rate of 55.2%; the retail sales of sports and entertainment goods for units above the quota increased by 16.9% year on year. Inbound consumption continues to expand. With the continuous effectiveness of the outbound tax refund policy, the "Buy in China" activity is being carried out in an orderly manner, and the "inbound flow" is accelerating the transformation into "consumption increment". By the end of August, the number of outbound tax refund stores nationwide exceeded 10,000, with a year-on-year increase in sales of tax refund goods in the first eight months by 97.5%, and a year-on-year increase in the number of people enjoying tax refunds by 2.5 times.