BEIJING — China's consumer market has shown signs of accelerated recovery during the five-day May Day holiday that ended Tuesday amid further containment of COVID-19, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on May 8.

Online sales of physical commodities surged 36.3 percent year-on-year during the period as the COVID-19 epidemic spurred fast growth of online consumption, according to Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan.

Also increasing are sales of consumer durables such as automobiles and home appliances that were restrained in the early stage of the epidemic, Wang said.

During the holiday, major automobile companies in municipalities of Shanghai and Chongqing as well as Zhejiang province monitored by the ministry saw their sales expand 49.6 percent, 28.5 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively.

As the country's consumption was hampered by COVID-19, livestreaming has become a popular choice for businesses to promote their products, according to Wang.

E-commerce livestreaming sessions doubled during the holiday while the number of goods promoted via livestreaming increased 4.7 times compared with the same period last year.

Generally, the rapid recovery from the COVID-19 impact reveals China's huge market advantages and massive potential for domestic demand, Wang said.

The MOC has recently launched an online shopping festival with 115 e-commerce platforms participating and more than 100,000 quality goods involved to prop up consumption.

During the five-day holiday, sales revenue of the shopping festival topped 58 billion yuan ($8.19 billion), data showed.

Meanwhile, 28 provincial-level regions have issued over 19 billion yuan of vouchers since the outbreak to further stimulate spending.

The measures so far have raised consumer confidence, improved people's livelihoods and supported virus-hit industries, especially the catering and retail sectors which depend on customer flow, Wang noted.