Consumption Contraction, Structural Differentiation and Consumption Differentiation Characteristics

Consumption has become the "main engine" and "ballast stone" of China's economic development, and future consumption will still be the main driving force for domestic demand. From the perspective of consumer subjects, final consumption is dominated by household consumption, of which urban consumption continues to increase steadily, while the proportion of rural consumption continues to decline. From the perspective of consumption structure, residents' consumption is mainly subsistence consumption such as "food" and "housing", accounting for more than half of them, and other developmental consumption needs to be improved. From the perspective of consumption differences, (1) in terms of regional differences, the high cost of living in the eastern developed economic regions, reduces other personal consumptions, especially education, health and other upgrading consumption processes. However, the proportion of education, culture, entertainment and medical care consumption of residents in the central region is relatively high, and consumption upgrading has great potential. (2) In terms of urban-rural differences, the per capita consumption of rural residents has grown faster than that of urban ones, and the impact of the epidemic on the per capita consumption of rural residents is small, and it is expected that with the strengthened policies and the recovery of economic activities, rural residents will promote the recovery of essential consumer goods, while urban residents are expected to promote the recovery of development-oriented consumer goods. (3) In terms of income class differences, consumption contraction types are manifested as "no money to spend", "dare not to spend with less money", "no willing to spend with money", "no place to spend with more money". The impact of the epidemic has reduced household consumption by nearly 3 trillion yuan a year, residents' consumer confidence has fallen off a cliff, gathering consumption such as catering, entertainment, and tourism has been seriously impacted, and consumption upgrading has been blocked. In the future, in order to cope with the shock, the most effective ways in the short term to boost consumption are adopted to stimulate residents' consumption vitality and restore consumer confidence. In the long run, it is necessary to effectively improve consumption capacity, enhance consumption willingness, stimulate consumption potential, and optimize the consumption environment, so that consumers can "consume", "dare to consume" and "are willing to consume".