Retail News
- Spenders open wallets wider
Date: 15-Mar-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE country's retail sales in the first two months rose a strong 14.7 percent from a year earlier, reinforcing a trend of sturdy spending buoyed by rising incomes and government steps to spur consumption.
The figure, released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics, was a bit higher than market expectations of a 14.5 percent rise and December's 14.6 percent increase.
Economists said the report held up a mirror to a rapidly growing economy where ordinary people can now buy goods that were beyond their reach less than a generation ago.
Sales of automobiles rose 48.1 percent from a year earlier, jewelry 39.2 percent, furniture 40.8 percent and recreational goods 17.0 percent. People spent 32.5 percent more on meat and eggs.
'People are improving their living standards by spending more on things they did not buy before, such as tourism and entertainment,'said Chen Jijun, an analyst at CITIC Securities in Beijing.
Chen said he expected retail sales for the whole year to grow by more than 14 percent, outstripping last year's 13.7 percent increase, as a government drive to improve public services gives consumers the confidence to save less and spend more.
Anxious to wean the economy off investment and exports and toward consumption, Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday promised to spend 80 percent more this year on education and 40 percent more on health care.
'Boosting consumption is a hot topic now in China, and I expect it will keep growing very robustly this year and also in the future,'Chen said.
Although China's social spending as a share of national income is small by international standards, the extra sums should make a difference to millions of poor Chinese who spend a large chunk of their disposable incomes on school and medical fees.
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