Since the beginning of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), together with the Ministry of Finance and other departments, has earnestly implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council on carrying out the program of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, and has orderly allocated funds from ultra-long special government bonds to support consumer goods trade-ins. Relevant departments and local governments have continuously improved implementation mechanisms, strengthened fund supervision and management, and achieved positive results in promoting the consumer goods trade-in policy. From January to August this year, a total of 330 million people nationwide applied for consumer goods trade-in subsidies, driving sales of related goods to exceed 2 trillion yuan. Retail sales of household appliances and audio-video equipment, cultural and office supplies, furniture, and communications equipment in units above the designated size increased by 28.4%, 22.3%, 22.0%, and 21.1% YoY, respectively, supporting a 4.6% YoY growth in total retail sales of consumer goods.
Recently, the NDRC, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, has allocated the fourth batch of 69 billion yuan in ultra-long special government bond funds for this year to local governments to support consumer goods trade-ins. With this allocation, the full-year central government funds of 300 billion yuan have been completely disbursed. In the next step, relevant departments will further guide local governments to reasonably manage the work pace, improve fund utilization plans, ensure balanced and orderly subsidy payments, strengthen quality and price supervision of products, crack down on illegal activities such as subsidy fraud and abuse, and smoothly and effectively implement the consumer goods trade-in policy to ensure subsidy funds are used effectively and deliver tangible results.
