The National Information Center recently released a series of high-frequency indicators, signaling a positive economic recovery trend. Since the beginning of the year, infrastructure investment has shown a positive change of "sufficient funding guarantee and accelerated project implementation". Excavators are the "standard configuration" of infrastructure construction and the wind vane for observing changes in economic data such as fixed assets investment. In January and February of this year, the domestic sales of excavators in China increased by 51.4% year-on-year, reflecting the accelerated pace of construction in fields such as agricultural water conservancy, forestry, transportation, municipal engineering, and mining. Meanwhile, in the first two months, the national excavator index was 37.38%, a year-on-year increase of 2.91%, and the progress of infrastructure project construction accelerated. Among them, the busiest is the central region, with a year-on-year increase in operating rate of 6.02%. Entering February, the performance of lifting equipment was very outstanding, with a start-up rate of 56.63%, far exceeding other major categories of equipment. Lifting equipment is commonly used in large-scale equipment installation, structural lifting, and other processes. Shugen Internet Excavator Index Expert Shen Chunfeng: Its high construction rate indicates that more infrastructure projects will enter the later stage of construction in February. This is due to the continuous development of major infrastructure projects in multiple regions during the opening phase of 2025, as well as strong investments in areas such as railways, highways, and energy. In February, the provinces with the busiest construction schedules were Anhui, Hubei, Henan, Zhejiang, etc. Data shows that although February falls during the Spring Festival holiday, nearly half of the equipment in these provinces still work overtime, and infrastructure construction presents a busy scene. The construction of engineering projects is accelerating, and at the same time, the demand for building materials is also growing rapidly. According to data from the National Information Center, the apparent consumption of steel such as rebar and wire increased by 41.5% in late February compared to early February. In addition, the national project investment bidding amount monitored by the National Information Center increased by 9.2% year-on-year from January to February, and the popularity of project bidding continued to grow rapidly. Since the beginning of this year, the combination of policies to promote consumption has effectively leveraged the huge potential of domestic demand, and hot topics in multiple areas of consumption have emerged frequently, demonstrating a vigorous and upward development trend. The offline consumption heat index compiled by the National Information Center shows a year-on-year growth of 13.6% from January to February, an increase of 7.2 percentage points from December last year, and the offline consumption heat continues to rise. Especially this year, the policy of exchanging old for new has expanded the scope of subsidy categories, and household appliances have increased from the "8+N" category to the "12+N" category, becoming the focus of consumer attention. At a home appliance store in Beijing, the reporter saw that while actively promoting the national subsidy policy, the store also carried out service measures such as one-year replacement for small home appliances and 100 day free trial for new products, further stimulating consumer enthusiasm. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, as of March 5th, over 9.4 million consumers have purchased more than 12 million units of 12 major categories of home appliances for trade in, and over 34 million consumers have applied for over 42 million subsidies for purchasing new digital products such as mobile phones. The consumption of goods is booming, and the growth rate of service consumption has rebounded. The consumption heat index of life services built by the National Information Center based on e-commerce platforms increased by 20.1% year-on-year from January to February. Among them, the popularity of leisure and entertainment, catering, and tourism increased by 79.1%, 15.4%, and 5.9% respectively year-on-year. Wei Ying, Deputy Director of the Big Data Development Department of the National Information Center of the National Development and Reform Commission: Since the beginning of this year, there have been frequent highlights in the consumer market, demonstrating strong vitality and potential, providing strong support for economic growth. The fundamental role of consumption in economic growth is becoming increasingly prominent. In the future, with the implementation of more policies to promote consumption and the continuous development of new types of consumption, consumption will continue to inject strong momentum into the economic recovery and improvement. (New Society)