Recently, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the operation of the national economy in July 2024. The reporter learned from the meeting that in July, China's consumer demand continued to recover, with digital consumption, green consumption, and healthy consumption becoming new trends in consumption. Liu Aihua, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, chief economist, and director of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the National Economy, analyzed the consumption highlights of July and stated that China's new consumption continues to expand, with digital consumption, green consumption, and healthy consumption becoming new trends. According to July data, the retail sales of communication equipment products by units above designated size increased by 12.7% year-on-year, and the retail sales of sports and entertainment products increased by 10.7%; The retail sales of new energy vehicles increased by 36.9% year-on-year. Since the beginning of this year, smart homes, entertainment and tourism, and domestic trendy products have become new growth points. From January to July, the retail sales of high-efficiency household appliances and smart household appliances in units above designated size increased by nearly double digits, significantly higher than the average level of household appliances and audio-visual equipment. At the same time, the proportion of online consumption in China is steadily increasing. Driven by new formats such as live streaming e-commerce and social e-commerce, the online retail sales of physical goods increased by 8.7% year-on-year from January to July, which is 5.2 percentage points higher than the growth rate of total retail sales of consumer goods; Accounting for 25.6% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to the first half of the year. The Central Politburo meeting emphasized that in the second half of the year, the focus should be on boosting consumption to expand domestic demand, and the focus of economic policies should shift more towards benefiting people's livelihoods and promoting consumption. Turning to the economic trend in the next stage, Liu Aihua said that from the demand side, the market potential and policy effectiveness are expected to drive domestic demand to continue to recover. The market is the scarcest resource. China has a population of over 1.4 billion and a per capita GDP of over 12000 US dollars for three consecutive years. Currently, it is in a period of accelerated release of consumption potential. The recently released "Opinions on Promoting High Quality Development of Service Consumption" and "Several Measures to Strengthen Support for Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade in" will gradually be implemented. With the arrival of holidays such as Mid Autumn Festival, National Day, and New Year's Day in the next stage, the potential of the domestic consumer market is expected to be further released. (New Society)