China’s State Council has officially approved the country’s first five-year blueprint dedicated exclusively to boosting domestic consumption—and artificial intelligence sits at the heart of it. The “15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption (2026-2030 )” explicitly identifies AI-powered consumption and digital consumption as priority growth engines, embedding the technology into a sweeping strategy that targets approximately 60 trillion yuan ($8.85 trillion) in total retail sales of consumer goods by 2030. The plan represents a strategic pivot by Beijing to rebalance the world’s second-largest economy, shifting reliance away from export-driven industrial output toward robust domestic demand, with AI as a central accelerant.
The 60 trillion yuan target implies a steady, if moderating, annual growth rate of about 3.7 percent from the 50.1 trillion yuan baseline established in 2025. According to Reuters, the plan explicitly pledges to raise household incomes and “significantly” increase household consumption’s share of the overall economy, which currently hovers around 40 percent—well below the levels seen in developed Western economies.
This policy shift comes at a critical time for China. The economy is grappling with a deepening imbalance characterized by strong industrial production—heavily supported by state investment and exports—and persistently weak domestic demand. With global trade frictions intensifying and the threat of aggressive tariffs looming, policymakers are under immense pressure to cultivate a self-sustaining domestic market capable of driving long-term economic growth.
A Strategic Pivot Toward Services and Digital Consumption
A defining feature of the new five-year plan is its pronounced emphasis on service consumption. While goods consumption has historically driven retail sales growth in China, the momentum in this sector has weakened. In response, the government is targeting high-growth service areas, including elderly care, childcare, healthcare, culture, tourism, sports, and education.
“By 2030, the overall scale of the consumer market will continue to expand, the household consumption rate will rise markedly… and consumption’s role in driving economic growth will be further strengthened,” the cabinet stated in the plan. The document projects that the share of per capita spending on services in overall household outlays will steadily increase over the next five years.
Crucially, the plan heavily promotes the integration of advanced technologies into the consumer economy. Beijing has pledged to accelerate the adoption of new consumption models, specifically highlighting digital and AI-powered consumption. This aligns with broader national strategies to embed artificial intelligence across all sectors of the economy. The push for digital consumption is expected to further catalyze the development of China’s AI-driven fintech sector and accelerate the deployment of autonomous last-mile delivery vehicles to support e-commerce logistics.
Structural Reforms to Boost Spending Power
Recognizing that consumption cannot grow without a corresponding increase in disposable income, the plan outlines several structural reforms designed to boost household spending power. These include commitments to higher wages, increased property income, and an optimized, more sustainable social security system. By improving the social safety net, the government hopes to reduce the high precautionary savings rate among Chinese households, giving citizens the confidence to spend rather than hoard cash.
The plan also addresses regulatory bottlenecks that have historically constrained consumption. It pledges to remove “unreasonable restrictive measures” in key areas such as automobile purchases, housing transactions, and approvals for entertainment events. For the automotive sector, a major driver of retail sales, this could mean relaxing license plate quotas in major cities, potentially providing a significant boost to the domestic electric vehicle market.
Furthermore, the blueprint calls for fiscal and financial policies to place greater emphasis on direct benefits to consumers, livelihood spending, and consumption-related infrastructure. This represents a subtle but important shift away from the traditional Chinese stimulus playbook, which has heavily favored supply-side investments in infrastructure and manufacturing capacity over direct demand-side interventions.
Inbound Tourism and Global Integration
In addition to stimulating domestic demand, the plan seeks to capture a larger share of global tourism spending. It calls for stronger tourism-related consumption, expanded visa-free entry to more countries, and increased direct international flights to Europe, the United States, and countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.
This focus on inbound consumption serves a dual purpose: it injects foreign capital directly into the domestic services sector, and it helps to project a more open and accessible image of China to the international community. The success of this initiative will depend heavily on the government’s ability to streamline payment systems and digital infrastructure for foreign visitors, an area where China’s highly advanced, QR-code-based mobile payment ecosystem has sometimes proven difficult for outsiders to navigate.
Ultimately, the 15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption is Beijing’s recognition that the economic models of the past are insufficient to address the challenges of the future. Achieving the 60 trillion yuan target will require more than just policy directives; it will demand the successful execution of complex structural reforms that genuinely improve the financial security and spending power of the average Chinese citizen. If successful, the plan could fundamentally reshape the trajectory of the Chinese economy, transforming it into a consumption-driven powerhouse.