January 22, 2008

China sales of consumer goods surge 17 percent as buyers pay more on meat

China's consumer goods retail sales soared by 17 percent to stand at RMB8.9 million (US$1.2 million) in 2007, according to the Commerce Ministry in Beijing last Saturday.

The ministry said that consumers paid more for daily necessities like pork and edible oil in 2007 on price hikes, as the inflation indicative consumer price index stayed well above the official critical mark of four percent and shot to an 11-year high of 6.9 percent in November 2007.

Government figures indicate that edible oil, pork and beef prices in early January in 36 large-and-medium-sized cities nationwide surged 58 percent, 43 percent and 46 percent respectively, year on year.

On Wednesday, the government regulated price hikes on key household commodities including grain, meat, milk, eggs and edible oils.

The retail sales increase, which outpaced national output growth, was significantly higher than the growth rate of retail sales in 2006, which gained 13.7 percent to RMB7.6 trillion (US$1 trillion).

China currently has commodity reserves in 23 provincial regions for 22 kinds of products. It also has a primary market supervision network covering 22 distribution industries and 600 consumer goods.