China's Retail Sales Predicted to Rise 12% in 2007

The Ministry of Commerce is predicting that China's retail sales will reach 8.5 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) next year.

Total sales of goods are expected to be 20 trillion or $2.5 trillion - up 15%.

This year, sales are up 13.5% over last year.

Inflation is at about 2.0%

There are a lot of zeroes in those predictions.

I wonder how much of that percentage of increase is due to simple population growth and an increase in the number of consumers and how much is because consumers are buying more.

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