A resurgence in travel over China’s Lunar New Year holiday is offering some signs of a consumer spending pickup in the world’s second-largest economy as it struggles with low confidence and deflation, reports Caixin. More than 61 million rail trips were made in the first six days of the national holiday, according to official reports. That was the highest in data compiled by Bloomberg News in the last five years, and it marked a 61% increase over the same vacation period in 2023.
“The Chinese consumer is beginning to stir,” said Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC Holdings Plc., adding that spending indicators had exceeded expectations. He acknowledged, though, that surpassing 2023 was a “low bar” given the country was still contending with a rampant outbreak of Covid-19 at the time.
The travel data is welcome news for an economy struggling with concerns about growth this year as the ongoing property crisis dents confidence and deflationary pressures persist.