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More money means more
shopping in Guangdong
Thanks to their fattened wallets, the Cantonese have
been able to spend much more last month than they did
in the same period last year on fancy mobile phones and
luxurious summer trips.
The exact magnitude of this prosperity has recently been
measured by a sample survey conducted by the Urban Investigation
Team of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong
Province.
Analysts attribute robust consumption to a recovery in
people's confidence in the economy now that the Asian
financial crisis has come to an end.
Benefiting from the economic pick-up, which is evident
in the double-digit growth in the GDP this year, the Cantonese
earned 18.7 per cent more in disposable income this July
than they did last July, about 1,093.34 yuan (US$131.7)
per capita, according to the survey.
Correspondingly, they spent 18.5 per cent more last month
on food, clothing, home appliances and domestic services,
medical care, transportation and telecommunications, entertainment,
education and other commodities and services, a total
of 888.6 yuan (US$107) per capita.
Rather than buying luxury food and clothes, the Cantonese
prefer to spend their extra cash on modern gadgets, phoning
people and sightseeing.
According to the survey, the most obvious increases in
spending were on transportation and telecommunications.
Now it is the summer holidays, more students and families
are travelling, so spending on transportation expanded
by 23.3 per cent last month compared to the same period
of 1999.
The number of mobile phones purchased by local residents
last month went up by 71 per cent according to comparable
statistics from last year.
"People's passion for consumption has been central to
the improvement of the local economy," said Wang Shouchu,
the city's vice-mayor, adding that the contribution rate
of consumption to GDP reached 66 per cent from January
to June this year.
The increases in expenditure on transportation and telecommunications
are in large part due to the quickening tempo of life
for the Cantonese.
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