Across China: Beijing

Sales up amid crisis

Despite the global financial crisis, the retail sales of consumer goods in the capital set a new record at nearly 459 billion yuan ($67 billion) in 2008, up by 20.8 percent year-on-year, Xu Kang, deputy director of the Beijing municipal commerce bureau told a press conference yesterday.

The first month of this year has also seen 16 percent year-on-year growth, according to a sample survey on 100 retail and catering enterprises conducted by the bureau.