Statistics from China's Ministry of Commerce showed that China's catering and lodging industry realized retail sales of 137.66 billion yuan in November 2008, a year-on-year increase of 25.1%, but a decrease of 6.6% compared with that of October 2008.

From January to November of 2008, the retail sales of China's catering and lodging industry were about 1.4 trillion yusn, a year-on-year increase of 24.9%. In addition, the sales accounted for 14.2% of the total sales of China's consumer goods in the same period, contributing 3.5 percentage points to the growth of the total consumer goods retail sales.

The accumulated revenue of hotels with annual takings of 5 million yuan or above and catering enterprises with takings of 2 million yuan or above was 384.82 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.2% and it accounted for 27.7% of the total revenue of all catering and lodging enterprises. Of that total, revenue of catering enterprises with takings of 2 million yuan?or above was 207.13 billion yuan, increasing 25.5% year-on-year while revenue of hotels with annual takings of 5 million yuan?or above was 177.7 billion yuan, increasing 12.6% year-on-year.

From January to November of 2008, 591 foreign capital catering and lodging enterprises were opened, a year-on-year decrease of 31.4% and foreign capital in actual use were USD840 million, a year-on-year decrease of 11.9%.

(China Hospitality News December 23, 2008)