Rural China Retail Sales Increase to Reach RMB1.62 Trillion

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Aug. 4 – Retail sales in rural China reached RMB1.62 trillion in the first six months of 2008, up 20 percent from the same period last year, the Ministry of Commerce revealed on Thursday.

The growth rate was 5.7 percentage points higher than that of the first half last year, said the MOC in a statement on its website.

Per-capita cash income among China’s peasant-class stood at RMB2,528 in the first half of 2008, up 19.8 percent according to the National Bureau of Statistics. China has about 900 million rural residents.

That increase however, was still 2.1 percentage points lower than the retail sales rise in urban areas.

“Commerce departments at all levels have assisted rural areas in tiding over the severe winter weather and the effects of the May 12 earthquake to secure market supplies of daily necessities and agricultural materials,” said the ministry.

China has seen the prices of agricultural products continue to rise amid increasing market demand and ballooning inflation. Agriculture prices increased 22.9 percent in the first six months of the year.