China's retail sales rose 15.9 percent year-on-year to 6.38
trillion yuan (US$851 billion) in the first nine months despite
soaring consumer price index, the National Bureau of Statistics
said on Friday.
The growth rate of retail sales, a major gauge of consumer
spending and an indicator of market movement, was 2.4 percentage
points higher than the growth rate of the same period last
year.
In September alone, retail sales expanded 17 percent
year-on-year.
Analysts attributed the rise of retail sales to the increase of
residents' disposable income as the income of both rural and urban
residents rose more than 13 percent in the first nine months.
Retail sales in urban areas climbed 16.3 percent to 4.33
trillion yuan while in rural areas it increased 14.9 percent to
reach 886 billion yuan.
Spending has contributed 37 percent to the GDP growth, but the
proportion should be "still higher," said Zhuang Jian, senior
economist with Asian Development Bank Resident Mission.
(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2007)
