Quick recovery after the coronavirus lockdown: Current trade figures from China.
While Germany and the United States suffered a sharp GDP slump of about 10% in the 2nd quarter of 2020, the Chinese economy had long since begun recovering after its coronavirus lockdown. The National Bureau of Statistics of China reports trade figures for the first half of 2020.
June 2020
Total retail sales (excluding e-commerce) and including automobiles: 3,352 billion yuan (406.6 billion euros according to the current exchange rate), 2,991.4 trillion yuan (362.88 billion euros) excluding automobiles. 3,352 billion yuan (406.6 billion euros) is 1.8% lower than the comparable previous year’s figure and 2.9% lower in price-adjusted terms.
January – June 2020
Total retail sales (excluding e-commerce) and including automobiles: 17,225.6 billion yuan (2,089 billion euros), 15,586.9 billion yuan (1,890.25 billion euros) excluding automobiles. 17,225.6 billion yuan (2,088 billion euros) is 11.4% lower than the previous year.
Online retail (e-commerce) increased by 7.3% year-on-year to 5,150 billion yuan (approximately 624.7 billion euros) in the same period and now accounts for 25.2% of total retail volume.
Durable consumer goods, including electronic products, increased by 38%. Nondurable consumer goods such as food, beverages, medical devices, cosmetics, etc., increased by 17.3%, and only textile products experienced negative growth at –2.9%.
Retail in urban and rural areas
Since more than half of Chinese live in cities, it is not surprising that the corresponding retail volume in June was 2,905.2 billion yuan (352.39 billion euros) and was down 2% compared to the previous year. In rural areas, the retail volume decreased by 1.2% compared to the previous year, reaching 447.4 billion yuan (54.3 billion euros).
Development depending on the format
Cumulatively from January to June 2020, supermarkets increased overall by 3.8% compared to the previous year, while formats such as department stores (–23.6%), specialist stores (–14.1%), and branded stores (–14.4%) lost by double digits compared to the previous year.
National economy
The gross national product (GNP) in the second quarter was up 3.2% compared to the previous year and was, cumulatively for the 1st and 2nd quarters, still down 1.6% compared to the previous year.
As a result, the Chinese economy has visibly recovered from the coronavirus faster than the rest of the world.
These figures are based on the press release from the National Bureau of Statistics of China on July 17, 2020, and the exchange rate as of August 7, 2020.