In the first half of this year, China's consumption market witnessed the fastest growth in eight years, but the strong growth momentum is unlikely to last long, the China Securities Journal reported on Monday.

According to a report released by the Ministry of Commerce, the total sales of social consumer goods went up to 2.96 trillion yuan (365 billion U.S. dollar) in the first half year, up by 12 percent year on year. The growth rate was 1.8 percentage points higher than last year's growth rate and became the fastest growth since 1997.

China's rural consumption continued to grow in the first half of this year, and the gap between urban and rural consumption narrowed from 5.6 percentage points in the first half of last year to three percentage points this year.

Although China's consumption grew rapidly, there are many factors restricting further increase, the paper said.

Statistics show that the areas of commercial houses sold nationwide in the first five months decreased by 17 percentage points, and the growth in the sales value of commercial houses purchases individuals dropped by 21.4 percentage points year on year. China sold 1.23 million cars in the first half year, up by 9.2 percent year on year, which was much lower than the growth rate in the same period last year.

In addition, it is difficult for farmers to increase their incomes, because the prices of farm products have fallen down and farming materials and rural consumer goods have become more expensive, an official with China's Ministry of Commerce Fang Aiqing was quoted as saying.

The price of fertilizer rose month by month since 2004, and the price of composite in June climbed to 2017 yuan per ton, 338 yuan higher than that in the same period of last year. The rural consumption in the first half year increased 2.9 percent year on year, one percentage point higher than that of urban districts.

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, the deposit savings of rural and urban residents in the first six months reached 1.28 trillion yuan (157 billion US dollars), 260 billion yuan more than last year's same period.

Moreover, the long-time downturn of stock markets and other uncertain factors have weakened consumer's desire for consumption.

Source: Xinhua