Rising incomes spur China’s retail sales
China's retail sales continued to rebound in July due to rising incomes and polices such as tax cuts and subsidies for farmers.
Data from
China's National Bureau of Statistics show that the country's retail sales rose 12.7 percent year on year to RMB 494 billion (around $61 billion) in July. That followed a 12.9 percent gain in June.
The sharp fall in the growth of consumer prices, from 5.3 percent in July 2004 to 1.8 percent in July 2005, as well as rising incomes and tax cuts contributed to the robust retail sales.
The continuing increase in retail sales is good news for policy makers, who are trying to rebalance the economy with more growth coming from
consumption and less from investment.