III. Investment Kept Fast Growth with Further Improved Investment Structure. In 2010, the total investment in fixed assets of the country reached 27,814.0 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 23.8 percent, or a drop of 6.2 percentage points as compared with the growth in the previous year. The real growth was 19.5 percent after deducting price factors. Of this total, the fixed assets investment in urban areas was 24,141.5 billion yuan, up by 24.5 percent, or 5.9 percentage points lower that that in the previous year, and that in rural areas was 3,672.5 billion yuan, up by 19.7 percent, or 7.6 percentage points lower. Of the fixed assets investment in urban areas, the growth of investment in the primary industry was 18.2 percent; that in the secondary industry was 23.2 percent and 25.6 percent for the tertiary industry. In terms of different areas, the investment in eastern, central and western regions grew by 22.8 percent, 26.9 percent and 26.2 percent respectively. The total investment in real estate development for the year was 4,826.7 billion yuan, a growth of 33.2 percent.

IV. Consumption Enjoyed Steady and Fast Growth and the Popular Commodities Maintained High Sales. In 2010, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 15,455.4 billion yuan, a growth of 18.4 percent, or a real growth of 14.8 percent after deducting price factors. Of this total, the retail sales of consumer goods in cities stood at 13,368.9 billion yuan, up by 18.8 percent, and that in rural areas reached 2,086.5 billion yuan, up by 16.1 percent. Grouped by consumption patterns, the income of catering industry was 1,763.6 billion yuan, up by 18.0 percent; that of retail sales of commodities, 13,691.8 billion yuan, up by 18.5 percent. In particular, the retail sales by businesses above designated size reached 5,805.6 billion yuan, up 29.9 percent. Rapid growth was registered in emerging areas for consumption: the sales of gold, silver and jewelries rose by 46.0 percent; that of furniture went up by 37.2 percent; automobiles grew by 34.8 percent and household appliances and audio-video equipment increased by 27.7 percent.

V. Market Prices Went up on a Year-on-Year Basis while the Prices for Food Increased Sharply. In 2010, the consumer prices went up by 3.3 percent year-on-year. The price rose by 3.2 percent in cities and 3.6 percent in rural areas. Grouped by categories, the prices for food increased by 7.2 percent; prices for tobacco, liquor and articles went up by 1.6 percent; health care and personal articles, up by 3.2 percent; recreation, education, culture articles and services, up by 0.6 percent; housing, up by 4.5 percent; clothing, down by 1.0 percent; transportation and communication, down by 0.4 percent while household facilities, articles and maintenance services maintained the same level of growth. In December, the consumer prices grew by 4.6 percent year-on-year and 0.5 percent month-on-month. In 2010, the producer prices for manufactured goods went up by 5.5 percent year-on-year. The year-on-year change in December was up by 5.9 percent and the month-on-month change was up by 0.7 percent. The purchasers' prices for raw material, fuel and power was up by 9.6 percent for the whole year, and in December it grew by 9.5 percent year-on-year, or 1.1 percent month-on-month.

VI. Total Value of Imports and Exports Increased Rapidly and the Trade Surplus Declined to Some Extent. The total value of imports and exports for the whole year reached 2,972.8 billion US dollars, an increase of 34.7 percent over that in the previous year. The total value of exports was 1,577.9 billion US dollars, up by 31.3 percent; that of imports was 1,394.8 billion US dollars, up by 38.7 percent. The trade surplus was 183.1 billion US dollars, a decline of 6.4 percent over that in the previous year.