The increase in China’s retail sales volume exceeded 20 percent year on year in the last eight months and is still accelerating, enough to sustain economic growth above 9.5 percent for the rest of the year, a HSBC report said. According to the report ‘China Economic Spotlight‘ released on recently, consumer spending has performed strongly despite the slowing economy, the disastrous earthquake and the cancellation of the May Day golden week…

China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on recently that between January and June 2008, the country sold 3.61 million passenger motor vehicles, a growth of 17.07 percent over the same period a year previous. The growth rate, however, was 5.19 percentage points lower than the 22.26 percent level recorded in the same period last year [...]

China’s passenger-car sales rose 20.41 percent for the first quarter from a year earlier, led by two ventures of Volkswagen AG, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said recently. Domestic car makers sold a combined 1.85 million passenger cars, including sedans, multi-purpose vehicles, sport utility vehicles and crossovers during January to March, compared with 1.53 million units for the same period of last year, the official auto association said…

According to the China’s National Bureau of Statistics report — 2007 national economic and social development statistical communique — China’s total number of privately-owned vehicles increased 32.5% to 15.22 million. The communique points out that by the end of 2007, the total number of civilian vehicles reached 56.97 million (including 14.68 million three-wheel motor vehicles and low-speed vehicles): a growth of 14.3% over the previous year. Among them, 35.34 million are private cars: an increase of 20.8%. There are 19.58 million civilian cars, an increase of 26.7%, 15.22 million of which are private cars.

National Geographic Channel made a documentary about the car revolution in China. In the video introduction, it says that ‘Cars are racing into China supercharging its economy, and delivering dreams of a better life. But China’s cars are clogging its highways and spewing out clouds of pollution. The rest of the world better watch out, because some Chinese automakers have plans to flood the world markets with cheaper Chinese cars be they made by GM or Chinas own Geely Automotive [...]

With the opening to new markets and the growth of the Chinese economy, a new social class has emerged — to some extend, unthinkable in a Communist China: the millionaires. According to a survey from Cap Gemini/Merrill Lynch, the number of millionaires (in US Dollars) in China have reached more than 230,000. The large majority of these new riches choose Shanghai to invest their money and also spend their money…