Beijing reported retail sales of 214.39 billion yuan (US$26.4 billion) in the first three quarters this year, a year on year rise of 11 percent, the latest statistics have shown.

According to the municipal statistics bureau, urban residents have always been the major consumer group. The retail sales in urban areas reached 185.56 billion yuan (US$22.9 billion) in the first three quarters, a year on year rise of 10.9 percent and contributing 85.9 percent to the city's total retail sales in the same period. Urban retail sales drove the city's total retail sales up by 9.4 percentage points.

Large commercial businesses contributed a lot to the city's total retail sales, the statistics show. Retail sales of local commercial businesses totaled 137.76 billion yuan in the three-quarter period, a year on year rise of 12.3 percent and driving up the city's total retail sales by 7.8 percentage points.

Increasing sales of durable goods and other articles for daily use is another factor behind the growth of local retail sales in the first three quarters, the statistics show. In the January-September period, Beijing's retail sales of such goods reached 119.7 billion yuan, up 6.7 percent over last year's same period and driving local retail sales up by 3.9 percentage points.

Among all such goods, sales of household electric appliances, audio and video equipment, medicine, cosmetics and jewelry, respectively, rose by more than 20 percent year on year in the first three quarters.

Fuel sales was also a factor that drove up retail sales in the first three quarters. The city's sales of fuel and fuel-related products reached 16.14 billion yuan, up 37.6 percent over last year's same period and driving up Beijing's total retail sales by 2.3 percentage points. Sales of petroleum products rose by 45.7 percent year on year, according to the bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2005)