China’s retail sales rose 15.9 per cent year-on-year touching 6.38 trillion yuan (US$ 851billion) in the first nine months despite soaring consumer price index, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
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 per cent year-on-year.
Analysts attributed the rise of retail sales to the increase of peoples disposable income as the income among both rural and urban Chinese rose more than 13 per cent in the first nine months.
Retail sales in urban areas climbed 16.3 per cent to 4.33 trillion yuan while in rural areas it rose 14.9 per cent touching 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.
