BEIJING - Sales of home appliances in China's countryside continued to grow rapidly in August, boosted by a rural subsidy program for Chinese rural buyers, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) here Tuesday.Sales of home appliance covered by a rural subsidy program for Chinese farmers jumped 126 percent from a year ago to 17.12 billion yuan ($2.52 billion) in August, said a statement on the MOC website.The annual sales growth in August was 7 percentage points faster than the July figure. About 16 billion yuan ($2.36 billion) worth of home appliances were sold in July.The growth in August lifted the sales value of home appliances during the first eight months to 100.94 billion yuan ($14.89 billion), an increase of 2.1 times from the same period of last year.The sales volume in the January-August period reached 46.36 million appliance units, up 160 percent year on year, according to the statement.
Trade surplus not worrisome: Chen. 
