Eleven cities record over 500 bn yuan in consumer spending
24 September, 2018
Eleven out of 45 first- and second-tier cities recorded total retail sales of consumers goods over the 500 billion yuan mark in 2017, Yicai.com reported.
Sales in Shanghai reached 1.183 trillion yuan (US$170 billion), an increase of 8.1% from a year earlier. It is the first time for Shanghai to surpass Beijing and rank first in the country.
Another city which exceeded the 1 trillion yuan mark was Beijing. Its total retail sales of consumer goods reached 1.157 trillion yuan, increasing by 5.2%.
Followed by Guangzhou, it saw a total of 940.3 billion yuan in social consumption last year. Although Guangzhou is not as established as the other three first-tier cities in the development of finance and the Internet, its housing prices are not as high, allowing for more consumer spending power.
Meanwhile, Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Suzhou have all exceeded 500 billion yuan in social consumption.
From the perspective of the ratio of social consumption to GDP, 13 out of 45 cities have exceeded 50%, which means people from the northeast, northern and southwest China are more likely to spend and contribute to the GDP.