China Creates Four-Day Weekend in May Amid Consumption Worries

(Bloomberg) -- China is creating a four-day break in May, as the government works to stoke consumption.

The May Day holiday on Wednesday, May 1 this year will be extended through Friday, the State Council announced. In exchange, people will have to work on the Sundays before and after to make up for the weekdays off, but the change will mean a four-day weekend for many people.

While this doesn’t create any new days off, it concentrates the holiday and could encourage more people to take trips and spend more on eating out, airlines and hotels. Tourism stocks advanced on the announcement, which comes after data showing retail sales grew at the slowest pace since mid-2003 in the first two months of 2019.

The May holiday falls in a good season for traveling, and the decision is made to meet that demand and make people happier, according to a Xinhua News Agency report which cited an unidentified official at the National Development and Reform Commission.

The official said the government will work to make sure that an exemption from road tolls for passenger cars during public holidays is implemented during this break.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Yinan Zhao in Beijing at yzhao300@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, James Mayger, Enda Curran

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With assistance from Bloomberg