Over 20m Chinese consumers apply for electronic products trade-in subsidies

BEIJING -- More than 20 million consumers have applied for China's electronic products trade-in subsidies since the government launched the pro-consumption program three weeks ago, data from the commerce ministry showed Sunday.

Some 20.09 million consumers applied for the subsidies to buy 25.41 million units of electronic products such as mobile phones as of Saturday, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

China started to offer subsidies for electronic products trade-in from Jan 20 as the country expanded the scope of consumer goods trade-in program to further boost consumption, which provides consumers with up to 500 yuan ($69.7) apiece on the purchase of digital products.

Card payment giant China UnionPay said it has recorded 6.27 million subsidized transactions with sales value totaling 20.58 billion yuan in the reporting period.

Driven by the government incentives, mobile phone sales in China jumped by 74 percent in volume and 65 percent in value on a weekly basis in the week prior to the Spring Festival, which fell on Jan 29 this year, market data revealed.

China launched an action plan to promote large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods in March 2024 as part of efforts to boost domestic demand and support economic growth. Official data showed that the trade-in scheme has boosted sales of automobiles by 920 billion yuan last year, and that of home appliances by 240 billion yuan.