CHINA'S retail sales grew at a faster pace in November, bolstering people's confidence in a booming domestic market that may shield China from blows from the outside.
Retail sales, a broad measure of people's spending, rose 17.3 percent from a year earlier to 1.61 trillion yuan (US$255 billion) last month, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
It edged up from the pace of 17.2 percent in October and set the overall growth in the first 11 months at an annualized 17 percent.
"Thanks to more disposable income in people's hands after a rise in the individual tax threshold, private consumption has been stable in recent months," said Li Maoyu, an analyst at Changjiang Securities Co. "It can help China offset negative influences from the debt crisis in Europe, which has slowed China's exports significantly."
Qu Hongbin, chief economist for China at HSBC, said consumer spending will remain resilient, thanks to rapid income growth and the anticipated petering-out of inflation that may boost consumer confidence.
The rise of Consumer Price Index, the main gauge of inflation, weakened to a 14-month low of 4.2 percent last month, making way for the implementation of more easing policies to bolster the economy.
A survey yesterday showed consumer confidence among Chinese bankcard holders climbed for a sixth month in November.
China UnionPay's Bankcard Consumer Confidence Index was up 0.06 point from October to end at 86.69 last month, and it was up 0.83 point from a year ago.
UnionPay, China's sole bankcard transaction firm, said the higher score was due to lower food prices, more payment from cardholders for travel ahead of New Year and more spending on entertainment.
According to the statistics bureau, people's expenditure on clothes jumped 22.5 percent from a year earlier to 80.5 billion yuan last month, while spending on furniture rose 34.4 percent to 12.1 billion yuan. The remarkable growth was based on people's rising proceeds among which disposable income of urban residents jumped 13.7 percent to 16,301 yuan in the first three quarters, and that of rural households swelled 20.7 percent to 5,875 yuan.
Source:shanghaidaily.com