Sales of China's lodging and catering sector up 15.3% in H1 (Xinhua) Updated: 2006-08-01 18:27
BEIJING -- Sales of China's lodging and catering sector reported a 15.3
percent year on year increase to 492.86 billion yuan (US$61.6 billion) in the
first half of the year, according to the latest data from the Ministry of
Commerce.
The growth rate was 2 percentage points higher than the growth in China's
retail sales of consumer goods, said the ministry's market operation department.
Statistics also showed that sales from the lodging and catering sector
accounted for 13.5 percent of the country's total retail sales of consumer goods
during the six-month period.
The department predicted that the sector's retails sales will reach nearly
598 billion yuan in the second half of this year.
The ministry said from January to June, it approved 536 new foreign-invested
lodging and catering enterprises, with the contractual use of foreign funds
totaling 1.43 billion dollars, up 15.6 percent, while the actual use of foreign
funds amounted to 380 million dollars, a rise of 48.6 percent.
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