English Summary posted here: www.theepochtimes.com Retail sales in two of China's wealthiest cities"Beijing and Shanghai"fell sharply in March, casting fresh doubt on the strength of China's domestic consumer demand. The weak performance stands in contrast to the narrative in China's state media, which has emphasized that strong consumer demand will enable China to withstand the increase in U.S. tariffs.
Beijing's retail sales in March dropped 9.9 percent from the same period last year, while Shanghai experienced an even steeper decline of 14.1 percent, according to local government data released on April 18 and April 25, respectively.
Despite these efforts, Beijing saw a 38.2 percent year-over-year decline in telecommunications equipment sales and a 20.2 percent drop in auto sales during the month.
Despite the poor performance in Beijing and Shanghai, the National Bureau of Statistics reported a 5.9 percent year-over-year growth in official nationwide retail sales for March. Many Chinese netizens questioned the accuracy of this figure, given the contraction in two of China's most developed cities. Some commenters mocked the official data, blaming the bureau for habitually inflating data to paint a falsely optimistic picture of the economy.
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