Retail sales of consumer goods in Beijing have exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($152 billion) in 2015, up 7.3 percent year on year, making Beijing China's biggest shopping city. (Photo : REUTERS)
Beijing has retained its rank as China's biggest shopping city in 2015, as online shopping fever continued to lift retail sales and push more old brands to open online stores, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
A report by Beijing Statistics Bureau showed that retail sales of consumer goods in the Chinese capital exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($152 billion) in 2015, up 7.3 percent year on year.
The report said that it is the eighth straight year that the capital has led Chinese cities in terms of consumer spending.
According to the report, about 82.6 percent of sales may be attributed to online sales as many traditional stores, including 13 of Beijing's 77 "time-honored brands" from snack stores to shoes sellers, have moved their goods and shifted to sell online.
In 2015, the city, with a population of 21 million people, has recorded 1.86 trillion yuan in total consumption, which marked a yearly rise of 8.7 percent. Consumption has contributed over 70 percent to Beijing's GDP growth.
The Ministry of Commerce said earlier this month that retail sales of consumer goods, a key indicator of consumption, increased by about 10.7 percent year on year in China last year, which contributed to a 66.4-percent rise in the country's GDP.
The ministry said it expects consumption to remain a strong force driving economic growth this year as the effects of supply-side reform start to pay off.
A study conducted by euromonitoring.com in 2013 showed that services accounted for 77 percent of Beijing's total gross value added (GVA) as its economy is transitioning toward a higher reliance on services. Combined with better educational attainment of the city's workforce, this has helped boost Beijing's productivity level, which was 136 percent higher than the rest of the country in 2013, the study showed.
The study added that the higher productivity levels in the city reflect the household income, which is higher compared to other cities in China. Beijing has a lower average household size, 2.4 versus 3.1 in the rest of the country in 2013, and the labor force participation rate is 66 percent against 84 percent in the rest of the country in the same year. As a result, Beijing's average household disposable income exceeded the average for the rest of China by 61 percent.
