China unveils first five-year plan focused on boosting consumption

China released its first five-year plan dedicated solely to expanding consumption, setting a target of roughly 60 trillion yuan in total retail sales of consumer goods by 2030. The move turns household spending into a central policy priority for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, 2026 to 2030, as Beijing tries to build a more durable growth base at a time when exports and infrastructure can no longer do all the work.

The State Council approved the plan and issued its reply on July 13, 2026. Official data show why the shift matters: retail sales of consumer goods reached 50.12 trillion yuan in 2025, up 3.7 percent from a year earlier, while final consumption expenditure contributed 52 percent of China’s GDP growth. Xinhua’s broader reporting said final consumption’s average contribution to economic growth during 2021 to 2025 was 58.8 percent, 10 percentage points higher than in the previous five-year period.

Beijing is not presenting consumption as a short-term stimulus target. The plan singles out elder care, childcare, culture and tourism, and health and sports services, signaling that policymakers want households to spend more on services as well as goods. That already has traction: service retail sales rose 5.5 percent in 2025, services accounted for 46.1 percent of per-capita consumption expenditure, and per-capita spending on services grew at an average annual rate of 8.5 percent from 2020 to 2025.

The plan also points to a broader economic rebalancing. It aims to raise household incomes and lift household consumption’s share of the economy from around 40 percent, a level that still leaves China well below the consumption intensity seen in more mature consumer economies. Earlier in March, the draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan said China wanted a notable increase in household consumption as a share of GDP, underscoring that the shift had already been building before this dedicated plan was approved.

The arithmetic suggests a slower but more consumption-led expansion ahead. Hitting 60 trillion yuan by 2030 would imply annual retail sales growth of about 3.7 percent, below the roughly 5 percent pace recorded from 2021 to 2025. That makes the plan less a burst of demand support than a test of whether Beijing can get households to spend more steadily, and whether domestic consumption can take on a larger share of the burden once carried by trade and investment.