Business     

Ordinary goods sell well but luxury dips

Xinhua, February 6, 2014

• China’s consumer market boomed during the first days of the Lunar New Year holiday despite falling luxury gift sales, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

  Sales of luxury gifts such as expensive alcohol and rare seafood, which are sometimes sent as gifts to officials during the holiday, have fallen sharply.

  Experts viewed the drop as a direct result of the central government’s anti-graft and frugality campaign.

  In Fuzhou, capital of the prosperous east coast province of Fujian, a dozen shopping malls saw sales of luxury alcoholic beverages fall by 70 percent year on year in the first four days of the holiday, and sales of rare seafood were down by 50 percent, while sales of ordinary goods went up in general, the ministry said.

  In the first four days, consumer market sales expanded steadily and quickly, the ministry said.

  Without giving nationwide figures, the ministry said consumer market sales in the cities of Beijing and Chengdu had risen by 9.2 percent and 13 percent year on year respectively. Sales in Shaanxi, Anhui and Henan provinces grew by 14.3 percent, 11.2 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively.

  Online business and the catering, tourism and entertainment sectors also prospered.

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