SHANGHAI — Retail sales in China grew at a double-digit clip over last week’s Lunar New Year holiday, according to the country’s commerce ministry.
Retail sales increased 16.2 percent to 470 billion yuan, or about $74.4 billion at current exchange, from last year’s holiday period, according to figures released by China’s commerce ministry over the weekend.
Clothing sales were up by 18.7 percent while jewelry rose by 16.4 percent and food sales increased by 16.2 percent, the ministry said.
According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, sales of Dragon-themed jewelry were particularly strong. A number of luxury brands, including Versace, Piaget and Coach, launched special dragon collections for 2012, which is the year of the dragon.
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Analysts initially issued tempered sales forecasts for the sales season, citing growing concerns surrounding inflation and rising housing prices as a possible cause for more conservative spending among Chinese consumers.
“It’s definitely in line with our expectations for the Chinese New Year holiday as well as 2012 as a whole,” said James Roy, an analyst for China Market Research Group.
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“We are still projecting retail sales growth between 16 and 18 percent for this year as overall consumer confidence continues to be high despite issues like inflation,” he said. “The majority of thousands of Chinese consumers we’ve interviewed in the last six months are still optimistic overall, and they expect to continue to spend.”
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the city was crowded with mainland Chinese shoppers during the holiday. Although official sales figures from Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics department won’t be available until March, retailers had anticipated a busy season and the city was crowded with mainland Chinese shoppers during the holiday.
According to provisional figures from the Hong Kong Tourism Bureau, total visitors rose by 5.5 percent to 906,981 during the week of Chinese new year which spanned January 22 to 28, compared to the new year’s holiday period last year. The week, referred to as “Golden week,” is one of two holidays during the year when mainland Chinese have an entire week off.
Mainland Chinese visitors made the most of the holiday with 706,748 visiting Hong Kong during the week, making up 78 percent of all arrivals into the city, according to the Tourism Bureau.
Hong Kong retailers, anticipating the bump up in shop happy mainland visitors, splashed out on Chinese new year decorations and introduced various promotions. Among those was Sun Hung Kai Properties, which manages 12 shopping malls in Hong Kong including apm, Tai Po Mega Mall and The Sun Arcade, which said it “registered impressive traffic and sales during the Chinese Lunar New Year Holiday.”
Maureen Fung, general manager for Leasing at Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency Limited said the malls “recorded substantial growth in both traffic and sales,” citing a 13 percent increase in traffic and a 20 percent spike in sales over the holiday period compared to a year earlier.