The Chinese Ministry of Commerce predicts that China's total retail sales of consumer goods in 2005 is to hit 6.1 trillion yuan (755.9 billion US dollars), said the Beijing-based Economic Daily on Wednesday.

Latest bulletin from the ministry as quoted by the newspaper said China's total retail sales of consumer goods in the first ten months of 2005 reached a historical level of 5.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 13 percent.

The rapid expansion of the consumer goods circulating sector helps resolve employment problems in China, said the ministry.

Statistics show that in the first ten months last year, the sectors of wholesale & retail trade and the catering trade offered additional job positions to 2.72 million people, about 30.9 percent of China's new employees during that period.

The ministry said the total employees in the whole consumer goods circulating sector was around 56 million by the end of 2005, accounting for 24 percent of the total service sector.

In 2005, the contradiction between supply and demand in the consumer goods circulating sector was also eased, said the ministry.

Among 600 major consumer goods, 428 kinds are faced with supply surpassing demand, 71.3 percent of the total, according to a survey of the ministry.

The ministry said China's top 20 enterprises in the consumer goods circulating sector were reported with a total sales value of 437.96 billion yuan (54.3 billion dollars) in the first ten months of 2005, soaring 26.4 percent over the same period of last year, with their total profits hitting 5.03 billion yuan.

Source: Xinhua