IV. Domestic market sales increased rapidly with brisk sales in both urban and rural areas.

In 2008, the total sales of consumer goods reached 10,848.8 billion yuan, a growth of 21.6 percent, and 4.8 percentage points higher than that in the previous year. Of this total, the retail sales of consumer goods in cities stood at 7,373.5 billion yuan, up 22.1 percent, or 4.9 percentage points higher while the retail sales at and below county level reached 3,475.3 billion yuan, up 20.7 percent, or 4.9 percentage points higher. Grouped by different sectors, the sales by wholesale and retail businesses was 9,119.9 billion yuan, up by 21.5 percent; and that by lodging and catering industry was 1,540.4 billion yuan, up by 24.7 percent.

V. The growth rate of prices showed the pattern of rise and down before gradually becoming steady in the second half of the year.

In 2008, the growth of CPI was 5.9 percent, which was 1.1 percentage points higher than that in the previous year. Of this total, the CPI went up by 5.6 percent in cities and up by 6.5 percent in rural areas. Grouped by categories, the prices for food went up by 14.3 percent, contributing 4.65 percentage points to the overall price increase; that of the housing rose by 5.5 percent, contributing another 0.82 percentage points; and prices for other categories witnessed slight rises and drops. The producers’ prices for manufactured goods rose by 6.9 percent, or 1.1 percent lower in December than that in the same period of last year, which was 3.8 percentage points higher year on year. The purchasers’ prices for raw material, fuel and power rose by 10.5 percent, up by 6.1 percentage points over that of last year. The sale prices for housing in 70 large and medium-sized cities increased by 6.5 percent, down by 1.1 percentage points over that in the past year, and were 0.4 percent lower in December than that in the same period of last year.

VI. The imports and exports kept a stable and faster growth for the whole year, however, the growth rate for the fourth quarter dropped by a large margin.

The total volume of imports and exports for the whole year reached US$2,561.6 billion, a growth of 17.8 percent. Of this total, the value of exports was US$1,428.5 billion, up 17.2 percent and that of imports was US$1,133.1 billion, up 18.5 percent. The figure showed a trade surplus of 295.5 billion US dollars, an increase of US$32.8 billion. However, influenced by sluggish demand in the international market, price collapse of international primary products and other factors, in the last quarter of 2008, the imports declined by 8.8 percent, and the exports went up by 4.3 percent. The total value of foreign direct investment actually utilized in 2008 was US$92.395 billion, an increase of 23.6 percent. The year-end foreign exchange reserves of China reached US$1.95 trillion, up by 27.3 percent over the previous year.

VII. The newly increased employment in urban areas recorded a steady growth and the income of urban and rural residents continued to grow.

In 2008, the total newly increased employment in urban areas was 11.13 million people, and the registered urban unemployment rate at the end of the year was 4.2 percent, which was 0.2 percentage point higher than that at the end of the previous year. The per capita disposable income of urban residents was 15,781 yuan, a growth of 14.5 percent, or a real growth of 8.4 percent over last year after deducting price factors. The per capita cash income of rural residents was 4,761 yuan, a growth of 15.0 percent, or a real growth of 8.0 percent after deducting price factors. By the end of 2008, the balance of savings deposits of households amounted to 21.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 4,535.3 billion yuan as compared with that at the end of 2007.