In this May, the retail sale of social consumer goods totaled 416.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 17.8%, and it arrived at 2099.9 billion yuan in the first five months of this year with a year-on-year rise of 12.5%.

    The main condition in the consumer goods markets in this May were as follows:

    Analyzed by urban and rural areas, the retail sale of consumer goods in the urban area was 281.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 21.1%; that in the area at the county level and below was 135.3 billion yuan, up 11.5%.

    Analyzed by industry, the retail sale of the wholesale and retail trade was 350.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 14.9%; that of catering trade was 53.9 billion yuan, up 47.2%; that of other industries was 12.4 billion yuan, up 2%. The retail sale of catering trade presented the growth with a high speed. Except for the basic data which was one of the main factors, the influence from holidays was significant. According to the related statistics, during the holiday of May 1st, the person-times of tourists and the actual tour revenue throughout the country went up 19.6% and 17.8% over the same period of 2002, and the actual business revenue of 140 enterprises mornitored in the catering trade climbed 32% year on year.

    The retail sale of foods, clothes and daily-used articles in the wholesale and retail enterprises above designated size went up 19.8%, 47.4% and 32.3% over the same period of last year respectively. Some main consumer goods continued to maintain the momentum of growing far more rapidly. Especially, that of communications equipment went up 53.1% year on year, that of petroleum and its products was up 50.4%, that of clothes was up 48.7%, that of autos went up 40.1%, that of cultural and office articles went up 41.7%, that of furniture climbed 27.3%, that of foods, beverages, tobaccos and liquors went up 19.8%, and that of books, newspapers and magazines went up 15.8%.

    In this May, the total retail sale of social consumer goods grew faster in name, mainly due to the incomparable factors last year such as SARS epidemic. Most regions were affected by the SARS epidemic, the gold week of May 1st was cancelled and the sale in the market reached the nadir, thus resulting in the lower basic data. Deducting the influence from the lower basic data and inflation of retail price, the sale condition of consumer goods market still kept steady.