The Ministry of Commerce said Wednesday that China's catering sector reaped 82.31 billion yuan (US$10.3 billion) in its retail sales in November, showing no apparent trace of damage from the recent bird flu outbreaks.

The report said that in November, retail sales of the catering sector went up 14.5 percent from a year earlier. Retail sales from catering accounted for 13.9 percent of the country's total retail sales in November.

The catering sector realized a retail sales volume of 786.71 billion yuan in the January-November period with a net increase of 113.73 billion yuan, up 16.9 percent year-on-year and 4 percentage points higher than the growth in China's retail sales of consumer goods in the same period.

During the first 11 months of this year, retail sales from catering accounted for 13.8 percent of the country's total retail sales in the same period, the report said.

The catering sector is anticipated to reap 880 billion yuan (US$110 billion) in retail sales for the whole year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2005)