China will extend subsidies provided to consumers to purchase smartphones and other electronics.
It thus wants to support domestic spending at a time when it is threatened with the introduction of new American tariffs. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing information from China’s Economic Planning Bureau. The consumer support program already applies to the purchase of cars and household appliances, and will now also be extended to phones, tablets and smart watches.
Chinese consumers are keeping their smartphones longer after the covid-19 pandemic. The reason is, on the one hand, the lack of interesting new functions in the devices, but also the general tightening of belts. As with cars and washing machines, investors hope the incentives will revive the world’s largest smartphone market and boost sales of brands Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi, as well as shopping platforms such as Alibaba and JD.com.
With a new step, China wants to support consumption and thus compensate for the effects of possible US tariffs on Chinese exports, which have been the main driver of the country’s economic growth. For only the second time in a decade, in December, China’s top officials made stimulating spending and domestic demand their top priority for 2025.
The government will significantly increase the sale of special government bonds with an extremely long maturity, with which it wants to finance the program. In addition to consumers, the program also helps businesses to finance the modernization of their equipment, said Yuan Ta, secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission.
Late last year, several Chinese provinces launched their own personal device and phone exchange programs. But a nationwide initiative could prove to be more effective.
Last July, the central government allocated 300 billion yuan (one trillion CZK) to support subsidies. She got the money from special government bonds. The government and local government programs have significantly increased car and domestic consumer sales since September.
China has previously subsidized mobile phone purchases as part of a large-scale plan to stimulate domestic consumption that it launched in late 2007. The program was aimed at countering the effects of the global financial crisis. The program was aimed at the rural population and also included the purchase of household appliances, computers and automobiles. It was terminated in 2013.
The government research bureau CAICT said today that shipments of foreign-brand phones to China fell 47.4 percent year-on-year to 3.04 million units in November. Among foreign brands, Apple has a dominant position in the Chinese market. Total phone shipments in the country, including domestic brands, fell by 5.1 percent year-on-year in November to 29.61 million devices.
Source: zpravy.tiscali.cz
