BEIJING: China's retail market is booming. The nation has become the world's second largest retail market as its retail trade volume doubled to 21 trillion Yuan or $3.44 trillion in 2012, from 10.8 trillion or $1.77 trillion in 2008, according to the latest data released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
Over the past five years, China's retail sales volume of consumer products has grown at an annual rate of 16.3 percent, a spokesman for the ministry said at a press conference yesterday.
The retail sector, now at 9.7 percent of China's economy, created more than 60 million jobs in 2012, an increase of 33 percent from the 45 million jobs in 2008.
This is good news for China as the country is on a course of economic rebalancing, shifting from a focus on investment to one more reliant on consumption.
Chinese leaders have been paying more attention to the quality of China's economic growth. (QNA)
