BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The retail sales of
consumer goods in China rose 15 percent year-on-year to 220 billion yuan (28.2
billion U.S. dollars) during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, said sources
with the Ministry of Commerce on Saturday.
Retail sales in the catering
industry surged 18 percent over last year's Spring Festival holiday.
The figures for central Henan Province, northeastern
Heilongjiang Province and Beijing rose 22 percent, 25 percent and 20 percent
respectively.
Ninety-five percent of the restaurants in Beijing
received reservations for family reunion dinners during the holiday.
Meanwhile, high-end household electric appliances and
digital products became hot sellers in major cities.
Sales of flat screen TV sets, including liquid
crystal display (LCD) sets and plasma screen sets, accounted for 90 percent of
the total sales of color TV sets in Beijing, while the sales of high-end mobile
phones soared 40 percent in GOME retail stores in Chongqing.
Motorcycles priced between 3,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan
sold well in rural areas of central Hubei Province and eastern Jiangsu Province
as more and more farmers rode motorcycles to make New Year visits to relatives
and friends.
Farmers' consumption capability is on the rise partly
because China's rural cooperative medical care system, under which the
government helps fund farmers' medical expenses, will cover 80 percent of
counties this year and partly because students in rural areas will be exempted
from paying tuition fees in the nine-year compulsory education, said the
ministry.
China has three Golden Week holidays every year,
including the Spring Festival holiday, May 1 Labor Day holiday and October 1
National Day holiday.
The Chinese government launched Golden Week holidays
in 1999, in the hope of encouraging people to spend more money for the benefit
of economic growth.
In 2006, the retail sales of China's consumer goods
rose 14.5 percent over that in 2005 to 300 billion yuan during the National Day
holiday.
