GENEVA — China’s retail sales of consumer goods will reach 31 trillion yuan, or about $5 trillion at current exchange, by 2015, Chinese deputy commerce minister Chen Jian said here Tuesday.
The upbeat assessment is also mirrored in a survey of 100 executives from some of the world’s top retail companies, each with sales in excess of $1 billion, who identified China as the country that has the most growth opportunities.
As reported, the international retailers expect retail sales in China “to double over the next three years,” according to the survey conducted by FTI Consulting and released Monday at the opening of the World Retail Congress in Berlin.
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Chen said the strength of the Chinese economy, fueled by increased domestic demand and the further opening of the 1.3 billion-people market to global competition, is also a “major impetus” for the steady recovery of the global economy.
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In a keynote address to a global trade and investment forum attended by business executives and trade diplomats, Chen also said, “It is estimated that in the coming five years China will import more than $8 trillion worth of goods.”
In 2010, China, the world’s top exporter with shipments worth $1.5 trillion, was ranked the second biggest importer after the U.S., with shipments of goods worth $1.3 trillion, according to World Trade Organization statistical data.
But Chen was also bullish on Chinese companies surging ahead on the global investment front and noted that Chinese foreign direct investment reached $68.8 billion in 2010. He said 70 percent of China’s foreign direct investment was located in Asian countries.
Chinese officials expect annual Chinese outward bound FDI over the next five to six years to reach $100 billion.