China's apparel market continued to maintain a rapid growth in 2011

The statistics on consumer goods market in 2011 released by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and China National Commercial Information Center on March 27 showed that China's apparel market continued to maintain a rapid growth in 2011, wholesale and retail enterprises (above designated size) and national key large-scale retail enterprises maintained an average growth of more than 20 percent in retail sales of clothing commodity.

In 2011, brand apparel prices of key national retail enterprises rose 20.3 percent year on year, 1.2 percentage points higher compared to 2010. Price growth made 79.9 percent contribution to the growth rate of retail sales, a substantial increase of 28.2 percentage points compared to 2010, that is to say, nearly 80 percent of retail sales growth in clothing was driven by the rise in unit price in 2011.

The rapid growth of clothing prices, especially the accelerated growth of branded apparel prices brought greater pressure to consumer apparel consumption. In 2011, sales volume of various kinds of clothing by large-scale retail enterprises only increased by 4.36 percent year on year, significantly down 5.84 percentage points compared to 2010, meanwhile it was also the lowest level since 2001.

In 2011, retail value of apparel goods by key large retail enterprises and medium and high-end stores only increased by 10 percent year on year, 11.5 percent lower than the overall level, sales volume fell 12.7 percent year on year.

In 2011, ZARA, H & M, C & A, GAP, Uniqlo continued to show rapid development in China. The number of their stores in China continued to grow rapidly, and significantly tended their development into second and third tier cities. According to statistics, in 2011, among newly opened stores of ZARA and H & M, more than 80 percent were in the second and third tier cities, reflecting a proportion of 82.8 percent and 83.9 percent, respectively.