Retail sales in Beijing surge in early 2010

Statistics released by Beijing Statistics Bureau show that retail sales in the Chinese capital increased by 15.1% year-on-year to CNY96.77 billion in the first two months of 2010.

The growth rate was 2.4 percentage points higher than that in the same period of 2009.

The retail sales of food reached RMB26.99 billion, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%; while the retail sales of clothing reached RMB 10.12 billion, a year-on-year increase of 10.8%. Beijing s retail sales of fast moving consumer goods grew to RMB 53.86 billion during the period, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%, and the retail sales of fuels surged 28.3% year-on-year to RMB 5.8 billion.

During the first two months of 2010, Beijing sold 184,000 vehicles, an increase of 20.6% compared with the same period of last year. Of these vehicles, 118,000 were new and 67,000 used ones, increases of 28.3% and 9.2% year-on-year, respectively.

In addition, the bureau said that Beijingers consumer spending mainly focused on five sectors: automobiles, home appliances, fuel oil, grains and edible oil, and jewelry.