China's consumer market grows as policies fuel domestic demand

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 3.3 percent year on year in the first three quarters of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

The country's retail sales of consumer goods totaled 35.3564 trillion yuan (about 4.96 trillion U.S. dollars) during the period, data from the NBS showed.

During the first three quarters of the year, rural consumption gained 4.4 percent year on year, and the catering sector saw its revenue rise by 6.2 percent.

Online sales remained a bright spot, rising by 8.6 percent year on year in the January-September period. In particular, sales of physical goods increased by 7.9 percent and accounted for a quarter of total retail sales during the period.

Pro-consumption policies, including the consumer goods trade-in program, have played a significant role in unleashing the domestic demand, Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the NBS, told a press conference.

China introduced a large-scale equipment upgrade and consumer goods trade-in program in March this year to expand domestic demand and shore up the economy, and stepped up policy support in July with an extra funds injection of 300 billion yuan via ultra-long special treasury bonds.

Boosted by the policies, retail sales rose 3.2 percent year on year in September alone, with sales of automobiles reversing months of decline and edging up 0.4 percent year on year, Sheng said.

Home appliance sales saw a notable 20.5-percent jump in September, up 17.1 percentage points from the previous month.

Sheng noted that while some policies need time to fully take effect, he called for local authorities to expedite their implementation to further consolidate the economy's recovery momentum.