What is Consumption Upgrade? Why has consumption upgrading occurred in China in the past few years?

Consumption upgrading generally refers to the upgrading of the consumption structure, which is the structural upgrading and level improvement of all kinds of consumption expenditures in the total consumption expenditures, and it directly reflects the consumption level and development trend.

Since the reform and opening up, there have been three times of consumption upgrading in China, which has driven the high economic growth, and the evolution of the consumption structure has led to the upgrading of China's industrial structure.

The First Consumption Structure Upgrade

(1) The first consumption structure upgrade appeared at the beginning of reform and opening up. At this time, the consumption of food fell and the consumption of light industrial products rose. This shift created a strong pull on the production of light industrial and textile products in China, which led to the rapid development of related industries and the first round of economic growth.

The Second Consumption Structure Upgrade

(2) The second consumption structure upgrade appeared in the late 1980s to the late 1990s. In the early part of this stage, the "old three" (bicycle, watch, radio) and "new three" (refrigerator, color TV, washing machine) were the iconic consumer goods of the subsistence and well-off periods respectively, which were favored by consumers as a fashion and drove the related The rapid development of related industries has been driven by this. With the further development of the economy, consumption at the later stage was characterized by a rapid increase in the consumption of household electrical appliances, the development of consumer durables in the direction of high grade, and the emergence of large-screen, high-definition color TVs, large-capacity refrigerators, air-conditioners, microwave ovens, video disk players, and camcorders as the hot spots of consumption among the urban population, with a further increase in the rate of penetration. This shift has created a strong driving force for industries such as electronics, steel and machinery manufacturing, leading to the second round of economic growth.

The Third Upgrade of Consumption Structure

(3) The ongoing transition to the third upgrade of consumption structure is driving the growth of related industries. In this process, the fastest-growing consumption is in education, entertainment, culture, transportation, communication, health care, housing, tourism, etc., especially the consumption associated with the IT industry, the automobile industry, and the real estate industry is growing most rapidly.