China's consumption upgrade unaffected by the epidemic in the long-run

Given the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, China's Commerce Ministry has addressed the issues on the supply of daily necessities to Wuhan, the outbreak's impact on China's consumption, and the operation resumption of China's trade related companies.

The Ministry said that the supply of daily necessities to Wuhan City and other areas of Hubei Province is steady and sufficient. The storage of grain, edible oil, and milk can last more than two weeks. And at least 10 days of frozen pork supply, and five days vegetable supply are guaranteed.

Commenting on the impact on China's consumption market, Wang Bing, the deputy Head of the Department of Market Operation of the Commerce Ministry said that the coronavirus outbreak will have a big impact on the short-term consumption, but it will recover in the long-run.

"It will not change our country's consumption market's long-term trend of being steady and consistently upgrading," Wang said.

"The biggest effects will be on January and February. They are expected to touch the bottom and get steady in March. The consumption market will still need to recover in the second quarter, and will get better in the second half of this year, due to the complementary consumption then," Wang added.

He also descried the impact on different industries. Saying that the consumption in service industries have been suffering losses, including catering and accommodation, tourism, culture and entertainment. Some medical protective products like masks and disinfectant have seen a big increase in demand.

Commenting on the operation resumption of foreign-trade related companies in China, Li Xingqian, the head of Commerce Ministry's Department of Foreign Trade, said that many foreign trade related areas, except those in the most severe Hubei Province, have resumed operations gradually starting from 10 days ago.

Li also said that trade related companies are speeding up their operations. 70 percent of those companies have been resumed in major trade-oriented provinces, including Guangdong and Jiangsu. The companies in low-risk areas have resumed operations comprehensively. Those in the middle and high-risk areas, are resuming step by step. The problems concerning lack of raw materials and logistics disruption are improving.

The Commerce Ministry has said that Beijing has been taking measures to stabilize China's foreign trade, support foreign-trade companies to resume operations, and strengthen support on financing, so as to create a good domestic and international environment for companies doing business in China.