While in most cases 11 percent growth in sales would be something to celebrate without qualification, China watchers are feeling a little disappointed in that figure.
According to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce, retail sales were a mixed bag during China’s weeklong “Golden Week” national holiday celebration, which runs Feb. 7-Feb. 13.
The goods news for China is that sales grew again in 2016 — up 11 percent to 1.08 trillion yuan ($170.2 billion). The not as good news is that this is proportionally less sales growth than the nation’s retailer experienced during 2014’s Golden Week celebration, when sales were up 12.1 percent year-over-year.
Celebrated during early October, the weeklong national holiday is particularly important to retailers, who compete hard with promotions and discounts to capture consumer spend. And spend consumers do, on goods, but also on travel, weddings and celebrations.
Slowing growth of any sort in China is of great interest to economists these days, as watchers the world over are trying to benchmark exactly what the Chinese situation is as it goes into what appears to be its first major slowdown after 25 years of growth.
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