China’s light industry sector recorded steady growth in 2025, as shown by the China National Light Industry Council (CNLIC) data on Tuesday.

Last year, the added value of light industrial firms above the designated size increased by 5.3 percent year-on-year, with Enterprises in the sector earning 23 trillion yuan (about 3.31 trillion U.S. dollars) in revenue, according to CNLIC's data.

Also, the profit rate of business revenue stood at 6.04 percent, which was 0.73 percentage points higher than that of industrial enterprises above the designated size and 1.34 percentage points higher than that of the manufacturing industry.

In terms of the consumer market, the driving force of relevant policy measures was particularly prominent.

Over 129 million home appliances and 12.5 million electric bicycles were purchased through the trade-in program in 2025.

Driven by this trend, the retail sales of 11 product categories in the sector reached 8.6719 trillion yuan (about 1.25 trillion U.S. dollars) in the year, marking a 7.8 percent year-on-year increase and raising the proportion of total retail sales of consumer goods to 17.3 percent.

In addition, the export structure of the light industry continued to optimize.

In 2025, the export of light industry products reached 911.46 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 24.2 percent of the country's total export value. Among the 22 major export categories, 11 saw growth. Exports to countries along the Belt and Road route and European Union (EU) countries increased by 1.3 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively, demonstrating initial success in diversified layout of export markets.

Industrial enterprises above the designated size refer to industrial enterprises with revenue from principal activities over 20 million yuan.