China's retail sales in
July rose 9.8 percent year-on-year, the fastest pace in six months,
the National Bureau of
Statistics said Thursday.
In June retail sales
rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier, rebounding from a 4.3 percent
growth rate in May, the slowest in five years.
The growth was 7.7
percent in April, 9.3 percent in March and 9.2 percent for the
first two months.
In July, retail sales
stood at 356.2 billion yuan (US$42.9 billion), the bureau said in a
statement.
Year-on-year retail
sales in urban areas rose 11.6 percent to 233.8 billion yuan
(US$28.2 billion), while the figure in rural areas increased by 6.5
percent to 122.4 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion).
The strong performance
of retail sales suggests that consumer purchasing power, which was
held back by the SARS
(severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, rebounded in July,
said Zhang Liqun, a senior researcher with the State Council's
Development Research Centre.
In July, automobile
sales jumped 85.3 percent from a year earlier while
telecommunications equipment sales rose 57.1 percent.
Sales of furniture were
up 31.3 percent, while materials used in construction and
decoration jumped more than 72.3 percent.
The heatwave that hit
southern China this summer spurred buying of fans and air
conditioners, also helping overall sales, the bureau
said.
Qi Jingmei, a senior
economist with the State Information Centre, predicted the
country's retail sales will increase by between 8.3 and 8.5 percent
in 2003, down from the 10.2 percent growth predicted
earlier.
"The SARS outbreak had a
considerable impact on people's consumption capability, especially
on farmers' consumption," Qi said.
In the second quarter,
when the SARS epidemic was at its most severe, farmers' per capita
income dropped by 35 yuan (US$4.2).
It was because many
farmers working in urban areas got back to their rural homes where
they had no income, experts say.
This would affect
farmers' income growth by 1 percentage point for the whole year,
said Yao Jingyuan, chief economist with the National Bureau of
Statistics. "Since mid-April the country's consumer goods market
witnessed big fluctuations," he said.
Retail sales declined
quickly and dipped to the lowest level in May. Retail sales in the
catering industry dropped a year-on-year 15.5 percent in May. But
in June, when the SARS outbreak was brought under control,
consumers resumed purchasing.
(China Daily August 15,
2003)