Digital discount coupons, reduced work weeks aim to spur spending

About 26,000 people used digital discount coupons to buy items via WeChat on April 20 in Wuhan, Hubei province, city hardest hit by COVID-19. The total value of transactions exceeded 7.2 million yuan ($1.01 million), according to WeChat Pay data.

On April 19, the Wuhan government distributed 30 million yuan in consumption coupons for use in shops, supermarkets, restaurants and tourist and cultural sites citywide via major digital platforms including Alipay and WeChat.

The city will eventually distribute 500 million yuan in such coupons to revive the local economy, which has been severely affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak. About 18 million yuan of the vouchers have been designated for registered low-income residents in the city.

More than 30 cities from 16 provinces and regions issued coupons with a cumulative value ranging from millions to hundreds of millions of yuan through April 15.

The coupon initiative is one of many measures in place nationwide to boost consumption and offset some of the outbreak’s negative impacts on the economy.

Many places, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Gansu provinces, are encouraging people to work 4.5 days a week in a bid to bolster tourism and consumption amid the downward economy.

Employees can take a 2.5-day weekend — Friday afternoon and the weekend — if possible. More paid-leave and off-peak vacations should also be arranged, according to documents issued by governments.

China’s newly added RMB household deposits stood at 6.47 trillion yuan in the first quarter of the year, about 400 billion yuan more than the same period last year, official data showed.

With more money in their pockets, people are spending less though. From January to March, the growth rate of total social retail sales declined 19 percent year-on-year, with the catering industry among the hardest hit industries. Catering recording a 44.3 percent drop in revenue during that span.