VINACHEM

China's retail sales, a reflection of nation-wide consumption, rose 12.5 percent in 2021, turning the tables on a 3.9 percent dip in 2020 despite the coronavirus continuing to resurge in the country and bite the global economy, statistics from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday showed. 

Consumption expenditure — a major growth driver that's been slow to recover but has great potential to be unleashed — contributed 65.4 percent to China's 2021 GDP growth,  the NBS said. 

Compared with a contribution of 54.3 percent to China's economy in 2020, the latest statistics show consumption has improved in China. The consumption expenditure contribution in 2021 even surpassed the average level of 60 percent from 2013 to 2019, but was still lower than developed economies (roughly 70-80%). 

However, while retail sales in December 2021 dropped 0.18 percent compared with the previous month after COVID flare-ups hit several Chinese cities, it remained in expansion territory growing 1.7 percent year-on-year.

The surge in spending is closely related to people's income and job employment, both key goals for China to stabilize its economy and society. 

China's personal disposable income per capita surged 8.1 percent in 2021, the highest increase in the last six years, and catching up with the country's economic growth at the same rate. 

As China pushes forward to achieve common prosperity, statistics from the NBS show a narrowing gap between urban and rural incomes. 

In 2021, China's personal disposable income per capita reached 35,128 yuan ($5,527), growing 8.1 percent year-on-year after being adjusted for inflation, the same rate as China's 2021 GDP growth, the NBS said. 

In particular, the per capita disposable income of urban residents rose 7.1 percent, while that for rural residents surged 9.7 percent. As a result, the income gap ratio between urban and rural Chinese narrowed 0.06. 

Overall job employment, another factor that Chinese authorities repeatedly put at the core, saw better performance in 2021 as the surveyed unemployment rate in urban China averaged 5.1 percent, down 0.5 percentage points from 2020. 

Last year, newly increased employed people in urban areas totaled 12.69 million, 0.83 million more than the previous year. 

The number of migrant workers, a group of people that support China's service industry and infrastructure construction, hit 292.51 million in 2021, up 2.4 percent year-on-year. 

Despite coronavirus control measures, 171.72 million migrant workers sought jobs outside their hometowns, up 1.3 percent compared with 2020. 

The average monthly salary of migrant workers also jumped 8.8 percent to 4,432 yuan.  - globaltimes.cn -