Qiu Xiaohua, deputy commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, said Wednesday that statistics show that consumption accounted for 60 percent of economic growth in the first quarter.

However expenditure on food was declining, while Chinese people began to spend more money on housing, transportation, telecommunications, education and traveling, which also pushed forward the development of relevant industries, Qiu added.

In the first quarter, apartments sold to the individuals rose 18.2 percent, accounting for 84.2 percent of overall sales, up one percent over the same period last year, said Qiu.

Moreover, in the first two months of this year, cars bought by the individuals stood at 106,000, up 13.5 percent on a year-on-year base, said Qiu, and the new figure for telephone subscribers was 17.22 million including 11.11 million mobile phones growing at a speed of five million per month.

During the spring festival, the number of Chinese people who went away on holiday reached 51.58 million, up 14.7 percent year-on-year, producing a 15 percent growth in tourism income to 22.8 billion yuan, said Qiu.

Qiu remarked that in the long run, with the consumption policy set by the government and with the increase in income of both urban and rural residents, spending on housing, cars, other durable goods as well as on traveling and telecommunications will increase.

(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2002)