China has unveiled a suite of policy measures to boost service consumption in both established sectors, such as elderly and child care and tourism, as well as emerging growth areas, including inbound consumption and live performance, the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

Tourists browsing hand bracelets and souvenirs at a stall in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, on Feb 11, 2026. (Photo: Xinhua)

The ministry, along with other eight department, has recently issued an action plan aimed at upgrading service consumption and delivering tangible benefits to households, according to a statement released on Friday.

The plan aims to develop a number of "new, high-profile consumption scenarios with broad appeal", the ministry said.

Specific measures will target both traditional service sectors, such as catering, accommodation, elderly and child care, culture, tourism, sports and health, as well as emerging growth areas, including domestic services, online audiovisual content, inbound consumption and live performances.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, services consumption outpaced goods spending by a wide margin in the first two months of the year. Service retail sales climbed 5.6 percent year-on-year during this period, maintaining a lead over goods retail sales, which grew 2.8 percent.

"In recent years, as living standards have improved, the consumption structure of Chinese households has been shifting from a goods-dominated model to one where both goods and services carry equal weight," Kong Dejun, director-general of the ministry's department of trade in services, told a news conference in February.

Between 2020 and 2025, per capita service-related consumption expenditure grew at an average annual rate of 8.5 percent. Its share of total household spending rose by 3.5 percentage points during the same period, reaching 46.1 percent of household consumption in 2025, according to ministry data.

"Looking ahead, China's service consumption sector is entering a critical strategic window and will play a significant role in lifting the household consumption rate and driving high-quality economic development," Kong added.