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Chinese New Year and Global Trade

The Chinese Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, is the most important traditional festival in China, typically falling between late January and mid-February. It marks the beginning of the lunar new year and is celebrated with family gatherings, feasts, fireworks, and various cultural activities. It is a period where Chinese go home to reunite with family, exchange gifts, and wish each other prosperity for the coming year. This year is referred to as the year of the snake.

China launched a month-long online shopping event to promote traditional Chinese culture, festive goods, boost e-commerce sales, among others. The event, initiated by the Ministry of Commerce and organized under the guidance of several government Departments and the China Consumers Association, is running from 7 January to 5 February 2025.

E-commerce platforms and brick-and-mortar businesses launched a wide variety of shopping events where high-quality products, including imported goods, are put on sale. Among other initiatives there are currently, imported goods from more than 80 countries enlisted on Tmall Global as well as an exhibition of about 150,000 imported products from over 100 countries, at the Yiwu Imported Commodities Mall.

According to the monitoring of China's major e-commerce platforms by the Ministry of Commerce, during the 2024 Spring Festival holidays, Chinese mainland online retail sales reached 1.2 trillion yuan in value, up by 9 percent from a year earlier. It is estimated that Chinese households could spend more on imported products during 2025 Spring Festival shopping spree. 

Source:  China Culture, 2025 , Global Times, 2025 The State Council, 2025, China Briefing, 2025, CGTN Africa, 2025, Tmall Global, 2025 & Yiwi Mall, 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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