China Retail Sales Still Up In November 2008

Despite the global economic downturn China's retail sector is still growing — albeit at a diminishing rate.

According to the statistics published by China's National Bureau of Statistics, in November 2008, China's total retail sales increased by 20.8% year-on-year to CNY979.08 billion.

The report said the growth rate was 1.2 percentage points lower than that of October 2008, but two percentage points higher than that of November 2007.

Analyzed by region, urban retail sales were CNY652.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.3% while those at the county and sub-county level increased by 21.8% to CNY326.28 billion.

Analyzed by industry, wholesale and retail sales were CNY822.62 billion, an increase of 20.6%; catering and lodging industry retail sales were CNY137.66 billion, up by 25.1%; and retail sales in other industries were CNY18.8 billion, a 3% increase.

Accumulated retail sales from January to November 2008 were about CNY9.776 trillion, an increase of 21.9% compared with the same period last year.