Young consumers’ spending on anime, comics, games, and pop toys, alongside growing wellness expenditures by senior consumers, will continue to shape China’s consumption landscape this year, according to HSBC Holdings. The coming nine-day Spring Festival holiday was set to benefit the food, hotel, and tourism sectors, propelling first-quarter growth in the food sector, particularly for snack food and dairy products. From a macroeconomic perspective, 2026 was not on track to outperform 2025, but renewed policy support would ensure steady growth, as current government stimulus measures to boost consumption had started to fizzle out.

Related reading: China’s Gen Z is ‘group-buying’ Tiffany jewelry