Food, retail giants cut prices to offset crisis

She does not know how long the shopping frenzy will last, but Liu Feifei certainly enjoyed yesterday - when she sold two days' stock in just one morning.

Ferrero Rocher sales agent Liu told China Daily that on a normal day no more than 50 boxes of the chocolates were sold at the Wal-Mart store where she works in Wangjing, north Beijing. But, thanks to a new discount campaign, she sold more than 100 boxes before lunch yesterday.

This was the day Wal-Mart, one of the world's largest retailers with 137 superstores in China, unveiled a fresh round of price cuts following the Spring Festival holidays.