China's retail sales to accelerate in 2013

BEIJING - China's retail sales are likely to expand faster this year than in 2012 on government efforts to boost domestic demand, according to a commerce chamber report released on Friday.

It is estimated that retail sales will grow by around 15 percent in 2013, the China General Chamber of Commerce said its report.

The rate will be higher than the soon-to-be-released retail sales growth figure for 2012, which the report projected at around 14.3 percent.

The report attributed the increase mainly to upcoming government favorable measures for the logistics sector and small and medium-sized businesses, as well as consumers' growing frenzy for online shopping.

Retail sales expanded 14.2 percent year on year to 18.68 trillion yuan ($2.98 trillion) in the first 11 months of 2011, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. The bureau is scheduled to release the full-year growth figure on Jan 18.