Monday January 5, 04:45 AM
China's top retailers say New Year sales rise 13 percent: govt
BEIJING (AFP) - Sales by China's main retailers rose 13 percent during the three-day New Year holiday, the commerce ministry said, despite jitters caused by the global financial crisis.
The country's 1,000 top retailers sold 12.5 billion yuan (1.8 billion dollars) worth of goods between January 1 and January 3, the ministry said in a statement on its website Sunday.
The growth figure was in nominal terms, and if inflation was deducted, the actual growth rate would be about 10.5 percent.
Various promotions and extended opening hours boosted consumption, and many exporters that were facing flagging overseas demand took the opportunity to explore the domestic market, it said.
However, economists said the figure actually provided further proof that the Chinese economy was slowing as it seemed much lower than retail sales growth recorded during the 2008 New Year holiday.
No directly comparable figures were available, but in the entire month of January last year, sales of the then top 1,000 retailers increased 30.6 percent year-on-year.
"I don't think the figures show China's growth remains strong. Instead, I think it shows economic growth keeps slowing," Qu Hongbin, a Hong Kong-based economist with HSBC (LSE: HSBA.L - news) , told AFP.
"With the worsening of the economic environment, it is likely that retail sales growth will further slow down in the first half of 2009," he said.
Qu said Chinese families are able to spend for the time being, because their consumption is not financed by loans.
This has prevented a sharp fall in holiday spending as seen in the United States and other countries, he said.
But with the further slowdown of the Chinese economy, unemployment will rise, having a negative impact on household income and affecting consumption, he said.
In the first 11 months of 2008, retail sales were up 21.9 percent from the same period in 2007.
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