Market

by+Li+Yili

Domestic Market

In the first two months of 2015， the domestic consumer market remained stable. The retail sales of consumer goods in January-February reached 4.8 trillion yuan， up 10.7% year on year， and the actual growth was 11.0% with price factors excluded， 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points higher than that of the whole year of 2014 and that of the same period of 2014. According to the monitoring of the Ministry of Commerce， the sales of 5，000 major enterprises in January-February were up 4.7%， 0.7 percentage points slower than that of the same period of last year. In general， the consumer market of 2015 enjoyed a steady opening. The main features are as follows：

New business types enjoyed a strong growth. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics， retail sales of online products in January-February were up 47.4%， accounting for 8.3% of the total retail sales of consumer goods， driving it increase 3 percentage points； the volume of express business was ex- pected to be up 36.6%. According to the monitoring of the Ministry of Commerce， the sales of online shops of the 5，000 major retail enterprises were up 38.9%， 18.9 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year； the sales of comprehensive shopping malls realized a growth of 11.3%.

New consumption hot spots sprung up continuously. The popularization of the 4G communication network and the rapid growth of information consumption bolstered the consumption demands for upgrading of communication products. In January-February， sales of communication equipment of the units above the designated size were up 38.5%， 25.6 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year. With the popularization and application of intelligent household electrical appliances， the upgradation， intelligentization and diversification of household appliances became new hot spots. In January-February， sales of household appliances and audio-video equipment of the units above the desig- nated size were up 12.4%， 5.1 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year. Driven by policy support and technological upgrading， sales of new energy automobiles remained a highspeed growth， up 2.9 times year on year in January-February.

Consumption for public service continued warming. The new consumption ideas of diversification， individuation and pursuing life quality make leisure tourism， entertainment and popular catering more popular. During the golden week of the Spring Festival， the person-time of travel was up 12.9% year on year， and the tourism income was up 14.6% year on year. In January-February， the film box office was over 6.6 billion yuan， up 28.6%. Affected by market adjustment and enterprise transformation， development of popular catering was sped up. In January-February， catering revenue was up 11.2% year on year， 1.6 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year， among which， the revenue of the units above the designated size was up 5.1%， 5.6 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year.

Consumer prices remained steady. In January-February， CPI was up 1.1% year on year， 1.1 percentage points slower than that of the same period of last year. Among which， CPI in February was up 1.4%， 0.6 percentage points higher than that of January. According to the monitoring by the Ministry of Commerce， in 36 large and medium-sized cities， prices of agro-foodstuff in January-February were down 1.5% year on year， among which， that of February was down 0.6%， 1.6 percentage points slower than that of January. In January-February， prices of soybean oil， pork and vegetables were down 10.1%， 6.8% and 4.3% respectively， while that of eggs and milk was up 8.9% and 4.4%.

Source： Ministry of Commerce Website

Foreign Trade

According to Customs figures， Chinas total import and export in JanuaryFebruary reached 3.79 trillion yuan， down 2% year on year （the same below） . Ex- port was 2.26 trillion yuan， up 15.3%， and import 1.53 trillion yuan， down 19.9%. Trade surplus was 737.4 billion yuan， up 11.6 times. In terms of the U.S. dollar， the total import and export reached US$ 618.2 billion， down 2.3% year on year， among which， export was US$ 369.4 billion， up 15%， and import US$ 248.8 billion， down 20.2%. Trade surplus was US$ 120.7 billion， up 11.8 times. The main characteristics of foreign trade in the first two months are as follows：

Export growth fluctuated and import maintained a negative growth. Affected by the Spring Festival， export growth of the first two months fluctuated， with that of January down 3.2% and February up 48.9%. Encumbered by the price falling of international commodities and weak domestic demands， the national import growth continued slowing， down 19.7% and 20.1% in January and February respectively.

Import and export with ASEAN， the U.S. and the Europe Union enjoyed a rapid growth. In the first two months， Chinas import and export with ASEAN， the U.S. and the EU was up 11.5%， 8.2% and 3.8% respectively， among which the export increased 38.4%， 21.2% and 13% respectively， accounting for 65.3% of the total export growth. Import and export to the BRICS was down 18.4%， among which import decreased 41.3%， 21.4 percentage points more than the overall decreasing. Among other major trade partners， import and export with Taiwan was up 2.2%， and that with Japan， Hong Kong and the ROK was down 9%， 6% and 4.1% respectively.

General trade was better than the entire trade. In the first two months， import and export of general trade reached 2.1473 trillion yuan， down 0.8%， among which the export was up 26.9%， stimulating the national export increasing 13.6 percentage points. Import and export of processing trade was 1.1538 trillion yuan， down 4.3%， among that， export and import was down 2.3% and 7.7% respectively. Import and export of other trade reached 482.5 billion yuan， down 1.7%.

Export of labour intensive products and mechanical and electrical products grew rapidly. In the first two months， export of seven kinds of labour intensive products reached 496.9 billion yuan， up 21.5%， stimulating the national export going up 4.5 percentage points. Export of mechanical and electrical products reached 1.2691 trillion yuan， up 14.2%， among which， export of lamps and lanterns， mobile phones and ships was up 46.2%， 25% and 21.7% respectively. The average price of import commodities was down 9.3%， among which， import price of crude oil， iron ore， refined oil， rubber， liquefied petroleum gas， coal， soybean and copper was down 46.2%， 44.9%， 39.2%， 25.8%， 20.6%， 17.9%， 16.5% and 12.5% respectively， dragging the overall import growth down 10.6 percentage points. Import of mechanical and electrical products reached 712.3 billion yuan， down 2.7%. Import of new and high-tech products was 471.4 billion yuan， up 0.4%.

Central and western China maintained a rapid growth. In the first two months， the imports and exports of central and western China registered 289.6 billion yuan and 323 billion yuan respectively， up 11.3% and 6.4%， of which exports grew by 30% and 26.3% respectively. The imports and exports of eastern China registered 3175.5 billion yuan， falling 3.8%， taking up 83.8% of the national total with a drop of 1.6 percentage points.

Private enterprises enjoyed a robust momentum. In the first two months， the imports and exports of private enterprises stood at 1393.1 billion yuan， up 3.3%， of which exports grew 29.6% with a contribution rate of 78.8% to incremental exports. The imports and exports of stateowned enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises amounted to 653.7 billion and 1741.3 billion， down 13% and 1.5% respectively.

Source： Ministry of Commerce Website

Textile Industry

The selected 100 key large-scale retail enterprises of apparel made great growth in value of retail sales in the first two months of 2015， after the downturn in the fourth quarter of 2014. According to the statistics of form Nation Commercial Information Center of China （CNCIC）， from January to February， the selected 100 key large-scale retail enterprises of apparel gained year-on-year value growth of 6.4% over the same， with growth rate higher by 7.7 percentage points than the same period of last year. （Growth of each month refers to Picture 1）

Due to the small cardinal number in the same period of 2014， the selected 100 key large-scale retail enterprises of apparel enjoyed an year-on-year increase of 7.9%， with growth rate higher by 13.2 percentage points over the same period of last year.

In terms of the im/export， China imported yarn， fabrics & made-ups of 1，022，433，000 dollars from overseas market in February， while the export value was 8，397，137，000 dollars， over eight times of the import value but lower than that of January， for the aggregate export value was as much as 18，112，409，000 dollars. The import value of textiles reduced while the export grew by 22.8% over the same period of last year. The same situation happened to export of apparel and accessories， which enjoyed a year-on-year growth of 17.7%， with 13，278，397，000 dollars in February and aggregate value of 29，103，020，000 dollars of the first two month. （Specific data refers to the table）