The consumption market operation in August 2017

On September 14， the Head of the MOFCOM Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion introduced the consumption market operation situation of China in August 2017.

According to the statistics of the State Statistics Bureau， the total retail sales of consumer goods in August amounted to 3.03 trillion yuan， up 10.1% year on year， 0.3 percentage points slower than that of last month， maintaining a two-digit growth. That from January to August was up 10.4% year on year， the same as that from January to July. The retail sales of 5，000 key enterprises monitored by MOFCOM increased by 5.2% in August year on year， 0.1 percentage points higher than in July， the highest after 2015. That from January to August was up 4.6% year on year， 0.9 percentage points faster than in the same period last year.

The official pointed out Chinas consumption market maintained a smooth and upward growth in August， mainly presenting the following highlights：

● The online retail sales maintained a rapid growth. According to the National Bureau of Statistics， the online sales of national entity increased by 29.2% year on year from January to August， 0.3 and 3.7 percentage points higher than that of the first half of the year and that of the same period last year respectively， accounting for 13.8% of the total retailing of social consuming goods， 2.3 percentage points higher than in the same period last year. In August， the online retail sales of key enterprises monitored by MOFCOM rose by 20.5% year on year， the same as that of last month， 15.3 percentage points faster than the overall speed of those enterprises. At the same time， the entity retail sales continued an upward growth. In August， the sales of key shopping centers， stores and supermarkets monitored by MOFCOM rose by 6.7%， 2.7% and 3.9% respectively year on year， 1.1， 0.8 and 0.3 percentage points higher than those in July respectively.

● The sales of clothing， communication equipment and gold， silver and jewelry speeded up. Among the sales of goods above the designated size in August， the sales of clothes， shoes and hats driven by the promotion of summer clothes and new autumn outfits grew rapidly and the sales of clothing rose by 8.7% year on year， 2.5 percentage points higher than those in July. Recently， the price of gold continued to rise with strong needs for the gold， silver and jewelry， and the sales of them rose by 6.4% year on year， 3.8 percentage points higher than that of last month. Promoted by summer vacation and the needs for upgrading， the sales of communication equipment increased by 12.2% year on year， 4.3 percentage points higher than in last month.

● The summer vacation market of service consumption kept prosperous.

● The consumption price went up slightly. The CPI increased by 1.8% year on year in August， 0.4 percentage points faster than that of the last month， up 0.4% month on month， 0.3 percentage points faster than that of the last month. Prices of edible agricultural products from 36 large and medium cities monitored by the MOFCOM was up 1.5% month on month in August， ending the price falling for six consecutive years， down 0.1% in the same period last year， 1.9 percentage points slower than in last month. The prices of meat， eggs and vegetables grew rapidly in July. The average wholesale price of pork went up by 1.6% month on month and kept rising up for two months. The price of eggs increased by 10.9% month on month， 7.1 percentage points higher than in last month. The average wholesale price of thirty kinds of vegetables rose by 6.6% month on month.

The official said that with the sustainable and upward development of national economy， the optimization of structural adjustment and the implement of supplyside structural reform， the consumption market was expected to remain stable and would keep a rapid growth in the later period.