China's retail sales of home appliances maintains double-digit growth

China's retail sales of home appliances maintained double-digit growth for eight consecutive months to April, fueled by the country's consumer products trade-in program, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

The country has continued to expand the scope of the program, effectively boosting consumption growth.

In the first four months of this year, over 34 million consumers participated in the trade-in program to purchase home appliances. They bought over 51 million units of 12 types of household appliances, driving sales of related products to achieve 174.5 billion yuan ($24.24 billion), the ministry said.

Over the same period, retail sales of household appliances and audio-visual equipment by monitored firms reached 346.9 billion yuan, up 23.9 percent year-on-year, exceeding the growth rate of total retail sales by 19.2 percentage points, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Besides, data from third-party market institutions showed that in the first four months of this year, the offline sales growth rates of water purifiers, range hoods, gas stoves, and dishwashers in major cities reached 45.3 percent, 42 percent, 40.4 percent and 25 percent, respectively, the ministry said.

zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn