Beijing retail sales booming

Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday that the city's January-April retail sales reached 264.69 billion yuan ($43 billion), a year-on-year increase of 10 percent.

This represents a 0.6 percentage point gain from January-March period.

In April, Beijing's retail sales reached 63.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.9 percent. Jewelry sales last month hit 30.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year surge of 72.2 percent.

Gold was the growth engine for Beijing's retail sector after a slump in prices. But the catering industry in April saw sales of 11.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year drop of 0.9 percent, according to the statistics bureau.