Consumption is an important engine of economic growth and a key link in smoothing the domestic circulation. The Central Economic Work Conference emphasized the need to vigorously boost consumption and expand domestic demand in all aspects. Currently, insufficient effective domestic demand is the main contradiction restricting economic development, especially in the context of continuously increasing external uncertainty. We need to focus on key areas and increase policy support. Since the beginning of this year, China has taken multiple measures to promote the sustained release of consumption potential. In the first 11 months, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 44.27 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%. When interpreting the spirit of the 2024 Central Economic Work Conference, relevant officials from the Central Finance Office pointed out that expanding domestic demand is a strategic move, and boosting consumption is of paramount importance. Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping stated that from international experience, the characteristics of major economies are dominated by domestic demand and internally recyclable. The next step is to combine promoting consumption with benefiting people's livelihoods, vigorously implement special actions to boost consumption, launch more practical measures, continuously unleash consumption potential, and focus on implementing the trade in of consumer goods, innovatively holding consumer promotion activities, expanding service consumption, cultivating and strengthening new types of consumption, and improving consumption conditions. Chen Lifen, a researcher at the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that expanding domestic demand and stimulating consumption potential should focus on key groups to enhance their willingness to consume. Resident income is the foundation of consumption, and social security is an important factor affecting consumption. We should highlight the priority orientation of employment, ensure stable employment for key groups, and strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of workers in flexible employment and new forms of employment. Promote income growth and burden reduction for low - and middle-income groups, and improve income expectations. Appropriately increase the basic pension for retirees, increase the basic pension for urban and rural residents, raise the financial subsidy standards for urban and rural residents' medical insurance, and solve the worries of residents' consumption. Wang Qing, Chief Macro Analyst of Dongfang Jincheng, believes that expanding domestic demand next year is a key task, and in the deployment of expanding domestic demand, the first requirement is to "vigorously boost consumption". This means that unlike previous countercyclical adjustments that often lean more towards investment, next year's macroeconomic policies will focus on boosting consumption and accelerating the growth of household consumption. Experts point out that efforts should be made to enhance consumer power and increase willingness to consume. By increasing direct financial investment in terminal consumption and improving social security levels, we can promote stable income growth for residents. At the same time, society generally reflects that the "two new" policies have had a good effect this year. Next year, we will intensify our efforts to expand our coverage, allocate more funds, include more consumer goods in our support scope, and optimize the subsidy distribution process. As the highlight of the 2024 "Consumer Promotion Year", the China International Consumer Center City Boutique Consumption Month event has been launched since November, with a total of about 4000 key consumption promotion activities held in five cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing, and more than 20000 participating enterprises. It has played a positive role in enriching product supply and boosting consumer demand. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, focusing on the first-time economy is an important feature of this month's premium consumption. During the Consumer Month, the five major cities held over 400 debut events, introduced more than 240 high-level first stores, and launched 58 platform carriers such as debut centers and debut economic clusters. The Ministry of Commerce will accelerate the issuance of policy documents to promote the development of the first tier economy, guide localities to find their positioning, and develop the first tier economy according to local conditions, "said Sheng Qiuping. Actively developing the primary economy, ice and snow economy, and silver economy, providing richer and higher quality service consumption supply, meeting diversified, personalized, and high-quality service consumption needs, is one of the important contents of innovating diversified consumption scenarios and promoting the development of leisure service industries such as culture, tourism, and entertainment. When interpreting the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference, relevant officials from the Central Finance Office pointed out that efforts should be made to adapt to changes in consumption structure and enhance the adaptability of supply and demand. Accelerate the improvement of relevant support policies, encourage various business entities to provide diversified services, and focus on meeting the consumption needs of residents in areas such as health, elderly care, childcare, and housekeeping. At the end of the year, the Ministry of Commerce stated that it will focus on organizing and carrying out the Chinese time-honored brand carnival for the Laba Festival in early 2025, as well as promoting consumption activities such as the national online New Year's goods festival, consumption promotion month, and ice and snow consumption season, fully meeting the consumption needs of the people for welcoming the New Year, selling New Year's goods, and enjoying ice and snow. By innovatively organizing consumer activities and creating a consumer atmosphere, we seek opportunities in the new changes of the consumer market. Since the beginning of this year, China has continuously optimized its policies to promote consumption, improved relevant systems, and enhanced the consumption environment. The work of exchanging old for new consumer goods has been promoted in an orderly manner, and significant results have been achieved in driving consumption. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, as of midnight on December 13th, the sales volume of passenger cars driven by the trade in of old cars exceeded 5.2 million, of which over 2.51 million were scrapped and replaced, and over 2.72 million were replaced; The trade in of household appliances has driven sales of over 49 million units across 8 major categories of products; The revitalization of home decoration, kitchen and bathroom has driven sales of over 51 million related products; The trade in of electric bicycles has driven nearly 900000 new car sales. The policy of exchanging old for new consumer goods has driven the overall sales of related products to exceed 1 trillion yuan. At the same time, under the promotion of service consumption policies, service supply continues to optimize and expand, and the potential for service consumption continues to be released. International experience shows that when a country transitions from the middle to high-income stage to the high-income stage, residents' consumption will shift from being primarily focused on goods to emphasizing both goods and services, and then to being primarily focused on services, "said Chen Lifen. Data shows that in the first 11 months, the retail sales of services increased by 6.4% year-on-year, which is 3.2 percentage points faster than the retail sales of goods. Among them, the retail sales of transportation and communication information services both maintained double-digit growth. We need to focus on key areas and links to elevate the level of consumption Chen Lifen analyzed that with the development of China's economy and the increase in residents' income, service consumption has become the main source of incremental consumption and the main driving force for the growth of residents' consumption. According to research, people rank tourism, cultural and entertainment consumption among their top consumption intentions. Pang Ming, Chief Economist of JLL Greater China, believes that we should adhere to creating effective demand through high-quality supply, accelerate the formation of a higher-level dynamic balance and virtuous cycle of demand driven supply and supply created demand, and improve the supply quality and efficiency of products and services in response to market demand, emerging demand, upgrading demand, and key needs of the people. (New Society)