Total retails of hotels and restaurants in China reached 936.4 billion yuan (US$120 billion) in the first 11 months of this year, a net increase of 130.5 billion yuan or 16.2 percent over the same period of last year, according to statistics published by the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

 

 

The growth was 2.6 percentage points higher than the growth of the total retails of consumer goods of the country in the period.

 

The retails of hotels and restaurants accounted for 13.6 percent of the total of the country, helped pull up the growth of retails of consumer goods by 2.2 percentage points, and contributed 15.8 percent to the growth of the total retails of consumer goods of the country.

 

The total retails of hotels and restaurants in November was 90.6 billion yuan, up 17.7 percent year on year, 3.6 percentage points higher than the growth of the total retails of consumer goods.

 

The country launched 978 foreign-invested hotels and restaurants in the first 11 months, down 10.5 percent year on year, with contractual foreign funds of US$2.52 billion, up 5.2 percent, and actual use of foreign funds of US$730 million, up 49.9 percent.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2006)