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Caijing: May Growth Rate of China’s Retail Sales of Consumer Goods Reached Fifteen Year Low

Large Chinese financial news media Caijing recently reported that, based on the data that the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics just released, the May growth numbers for the total retail sales of all consumer goods slowed down significantly to 8.5 percent, year-over-year. This growth rate is much lower than the expected 9.4 percent. The number is at its lowest level since May 2003. Interestingly, the growth rate of urban consumer retail is significantly lower (8.3 percent) than that of the suburban rate (9.6 percent). Another noticeable trend is that automobile related consumer spending growth actually saw a decline of one percent. The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics offered the comment that the significant slowdown is mainly due to short-term factors and external uncertainty. The Bureau expects the growth to remain stable.

Source: Caijing, June 14, 2018
http://economy.caijing.com.cn/20180614/4470274.shtml