Chinese retail sales up 9% during May Day holiday

BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales climbed 9 percent from a year ago to about 12 billion yuan (1.76 billion U.S. dollars) during the three-day May Day holiday, the Ministry of Commerce said Sunday.

The estimate was based on sales from May 1 to May 3 at 1,000 major domestic retailers monitored by the ministry.

The ministry said robust sales were reported for gold, jewelry, home appliances and autos, as retailers launched promotion campaigns.

Sales of gold and other jewelry rose 19.6 percent, the ministry said, without giving specific figures.

However, it said the Beijing Caishikou Department Store, a major gold retailer in the capital, saw its sales nearly double to 14.3 million yuan on May 1 alone.

Sales of appliances, such as LCD TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators and lap-tops, increased 11.4 percent, while those of automobiles grew 9.2 percent.

Ministry to impose anti-dumping measures on BDO imports from Taiwan, Saudi Arabia

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Global Financial Crisis

BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland will start from Wednesday
imposing temporary anti-dumping measures on 1,4-butanediol (BDO) imported from
Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

In a statement on its website, the ministry said Taiwan and Saudi Arabia
had dumped BDO products on the Chinese mainland.

The ministry said the temporary measures are a result of the initial ruling
of an anti-dumping investigation that began in September last year.

The ministry said Taiwan and Saudi Abrabia's dumping had caused substantial
damage to the mainland's BDO industry. Importers will have to pay a deposit when
bringing the goods into the country.

The amount of deposit paid by importers at customs would be decided by the
extent of the dumping action of different producers in the two regions, said the
ministry.

The ministry did not say when, or under what circumstances, these measures
would be ended.

BDO is industrially used as a solvent and an ingredient for manufacturing
some types of plastics and elastic fibers. It's widely used in the production of
pharmaceuticals, chemicals, textiles, autos, and paper-making.

Ministry: German economy expected to shrink 6% in 2009

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

BERLIN, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The German economy is expected to shrink 6 percent this year, the biggest decline in Europe's largest economy since World War II, the Economy Ministry said Wednesday.

However, the ministry predicted that, with the help of fiscal stimulus packages and a revival of export growth, Germany's GDP will see a slight growth of 0.5 percent next year.

The German economy went into recession in the third quarter of last year.