Retailing to power growth

The nation's consumption will remain robust in 2009, providing a much-needed growth engine to cushion the export slowdown, a senior government official said.

"The strong consumption growth will continue, given the improvement in consumption environment like the social security system," Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a press conference yesterday.

China's retail sales grew 21.6 percent year-on-year in 2008, up from 16.8 percent in 2007. In contrast, the growth rate of investment only increased 0.7 percentage point to 25.5 percent. Export growth dropped to 17.8 percent, down from 25.7 percent a year ago.