China's home appliance sales surge in 2024 under trade-in scheme

China's sales of home appliances surged in 2024 under its policy-backed trade-in program, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Saturday.

Retail sales of home appliances and audio and visual equipment under the scheme reached 1.03 trillion yuan (about 143.29 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. This marks the first time the figure has surpassed the 1 trillion yuan threshold and represents a 12.3 percent year-on-year growth.

More than 37 million consumers benefited from subsidies for their home goods purchases, the MOC said.

The high participation in the program was evident. It took 33 days for the number of participants to reach one million, and only 17 more days to hit five million, the ministry added.

Energy-efficient products were in particularly high demand, with items at the highest energy-efficiency level accounting for over 90 percent of total sales revenue.

To stimulate consumer spending and drive economic growth, China announced an action plan in March 2024 to implement large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, nearly 15 years after the last such renewal campaign.

As part of recent efforts to bolster the program, China has decided to expand the number of home appliance categories eligible for government subsidies from eight in 2024 to 12 in 2025, with microwaves, water purifiers, dishwashers, and rice cookers added to the trade-in list.