Holiday sales of Chinese retail, catering firms up 8.5 pct

Combined sales of retail and catering enterprises in China rose 8.5 percent year on year during the week-long Spring Festival holiday ending Sunday.

From Monday to Sunday, their total sales reached a new high of 1.01 trillion yuan (about 150 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website.

Chinese consumers paid more attention to product quality during the holiday, with the sales of organic food, smart home appliances and new electronic devices seeing fast expansion, the ministry said.

Supply of daily necessities was sufficient, and the prices were generally stable during the past week, according to the statement.

The Spring Festival, China's Lunar New Year, is an important traditional festival for Chinese. It fell on Feb. 5 this year.