China's Ministry of Commerce: Commercial Performance in Domestic Market

In the first seven months of this year, the domestic consumer market remained steady. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, total retail sales of consumer goods in January-July reached RMB 14.4974 trillion, up 12.1% year on year, the same as that of the first half year, and 0.7 percentage points slower than that of the same period of last year. In July, the retail sales of consumer goods increased 12.2%, up 10.5% with price factors excluded. Following are the main characteristics of the consumer market in January-July.

1. Information consumption grew rapidly. Among 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, online shopping was up 35.2% in July, 5.3 percentage points higher than that of the first half year. The rapid development of 4G spurred the consumption of related products, and according to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, sales of communication equipments of enterprises above designated size in July was up 24.2% year on year. 

2. Consumer demands for services increased. Catering enterprises transformed to popularization, and middle-level catering consumption with brands and features was active. In July, catering revenue was up 9.4%, with that of catering enterprises under designated size up 12.7%. According to statistics, the film tickets revenue in July reached RMB 3.61 billion, up 102% year on year. 

3. Housing and automobile consumption was slow but steady. Among 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, sales of household appliances, furniture, building and decoration materials were respectively up 7.9%, 9.9% and 14.2% in July, 0.1, 4.8 and 3.4 percentage points higher than that of the previous month, slow but steady. Automobile consumption picked up after the falling of March, and in July, the sales of automobile enterprises above designated size was up 8.1%, 1.2 percentage points higher than that of the previous month. 

4. Rural consumption grew steadily. Driven by the rapid increase of rural residents’ income and the optimization of the rural social security system and commodity circulation system, rural consumption enjoyed a steady growth. In January-July, rural consumption increased 13.2%, exceeding that of towns, which was 12%. 

5. Sales of large and medium-sized circulation enterprises slowed down. In January-July, sales of 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce was up 6.3% year on year, 2.5 percentage points slower than that of the same period of last year, among which, sales of department stores and supermarkets went up 4.1% and 5.2% respectively, 7.1 and 3 percentage points slower than that of the same period of last year. In January-July, retail sales of consumer goods of enterprises above designated size were up 9.8%, 2.3 percentage points slower than the total. 

6. Consumer prices remained steady. According to figures of the National Bureau of Statistics in January-July, CPI was up 2.3% year on year, the same as that of the previous month. According to the Ministry of Commerce, in 36 large and medium-sized cities, prices of agro-foodstuff went up 2.4% year on year in June, 0.2 percentage points slower than that of June. Among that, the prices of vegetables, eggs, milk and fruit went up 6.6%, 7.4%, 9.8% and 20.2% respectively, while prices of pork and soybean oil went down 5% and 3.3% respectively. (www.chinainout.com excerpts from Ministry of Commerce)