China's retail sales of catering industry will hopefully surpass 880 bln yuan this year, predicts the Ministry of Commerce of China.

The catering industry will become more stable; the quality of its growth will further improve; and size of the catering market will further expand, according to an official with Department of Reform and Development of the Ministry. The retail sales of catering industry in China is expected to increase 17 percent this year, and hopefully exceed 880 bln yuan. By 2006 the figure will exceed 1 trillion.

As analysis on fluctuation of catering industry's growth over the past 25 years shows, the great fluctuation of economic indexes from 1978 to 1994 represented ups and downs of the catering economy in China. From 1994 to 2004, the lowered fluctuation rate indicated higher quality of catering economy's growth. In 2004, the retail sales of catering industry increased 133 bln yuan to 748.6 bln, a year-on-year increase of 21.6 percent. With development of the national economy, the catering market has kept expanding in China. The retail sales of catering industry had exceeded 100 bln yuan in 1994, 200 bln in 1996 and 300 bln in 1999. From 2001 to 2004 the figure had soared by 100 bln yuan annually.

In 2004, the catering industry reported a 10 percent increase as against 2003, 8.3 percent higher than the total retail sales of social consumer goods and accounted for 13.9 percent of total retail sales of social consumer goods. The catering industry contributed 21 percent to rise of total retail sales of social consumer goods and helped it grow 2.79 percent. The catering industry is becoming an important pulling force for consumption in China.

By People's Daily Online