Data shows Chinese economy is recovering

Tourists enjoy their leisure time during the May Day holiday in Fenglongwan, Xundian Hui and Yi Autonomous County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 4, 2020. /Xinhua

As COVID-19 is now well contained in China, the Chinese economy is returning to its normal status. Analysts looking at the Chinese economy can tell this from many areas, such as the crowds in the streets, the empty hospital wards, as well as economic figures.

Here are some economic figures that can tell you the exact picture of the current Chinese economic status, from the local to the national level.

Among all parts of the economy, the domestic consumption, especially online shopping, recovered at the fastest speed.

During the May Day holiday, data shows that internet shopping at some major online retailers increased by over 30 percent compared with one year ago.

This large increment has also caused a sharp rising in packages sent during the May Day holiday. Statistics released by the State Post Bureau show that from May 1 to 5, around 1.1 billion packages have been collected in China, 41.8 percent more than the same period in 2019.

China's consumption is also resuming at the brick-and-mortar sectors.

Data shows that during the May Day holiday, the consumption in hotel and restaurant sectors has resumed to around 70 percent of the level in 2019, amid the still ongoing containing measures taken by many cities to completely eliminate the risks of COVID-19.

Even the tourism sector, which has been among the sectors hit the hardest by the epidemic, is now recovering.

Data from Changsha, a city in Hunan Province, shows that during the May Day holiday, the city welcomed around 3.6 million tourists, 81 percent of that in 2019.

Data from Yunnan Province also shows that during the same period, around 9.9 million tourists visited the province, 67 percent of that in 2019.

An interesting difference between the number of tourists reported by Changsha and Yunnan is that the tourism industry seems to be recovering better in Changsha than in Yunnan.

The reason behind this difference lies in a subtle point: with the epidemic in mind, people prefer short-distance travel.

As Changsha is a tourist city that attracts more local tourists and Yunnan is more likely to attract tourists from other provinces, their difference in terms of the speed of recovery is easily understandable.

Data from Quark, a search engine of Alibaba, shows that while the overall searching for traveling plans reduced during this year's May Day holiday, the searching for short-distance traveling plans increased by 120 percent compared with 2019.

The consumption restarting, as well as the overall economy, has also been proved by electricity generation and consumption. Data from Jiangsu's State Grid shows that in April, the electricity consumption in the province reached 47.7 billion kilowatt-hours, 0.3 percent higher than a year ago.

The most surprising data of the Chinese economy is perhaps the trading data.

In April, China's total international trade, including both export and import, reached 2.5 trillion Chinese yuan, only 0.7 percent lower than 2019. Exports grew 8.2 percent year on year to 1.4 trillion Chinese yuan; imports reached 1.1 trillion Chinese yuan, 10.2 percent lower than the same period in 2019.

This trading data shows that China is doing its best to support the world during the epidemic, in terms of information and materials.

Overall speaking, the Chinese economy is now quickly recovering from the epidemic. The only concern left for the economy is not the epidemic inside China, but the fight against COVID-19 across the globe.

After all, there is such a strong trading relationship between the world's major economies today. One country's economic prosperity is strongly connected with the well-being of the rest of the world.

Editor: John Li