China's light industry sector has seen robust growth in the first half of the year, benefiting from a steady increase in consumption and the continuous optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, industrial data showed.
Data from the China National Light Industry Council indicated that in the six months, the added value for light industry "enterprises above designated size" increased by 5.3 percent year-on-year.
Enterprises above the designated size refer to those with an annual revenue from main business operations being 20 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars) or more.
The council's leadership credited the expansion to a variety of successful measures the Chinese government has undertaken at the national level.
"Since the beginning of this year, driven by a series of policies to stabilize growth, expand domestic demand, and promote consumption, the economic performance of the light industry has rebounded and improved, with rapid growth in production, steady expansion of the market, improved profitability, substantial increase in investment, and enhanced momentum for new quality development," said Zhang Chonghe, chairman of the China National Light Industry Council.
On the production side, among the 91 major light industrial products counted by the National Bureau of Statistics, the output of 66 products, or about 72 percent of product categories, posted increment.
Among them, the output of 18 products including air conditioners and solar cells maintained double-digit growth.
On the consumption end, in the first half of the year, the retail sales of 11 categories of light industrial products were nearly 3.8 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly 16 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods, an increase of 4.4 percent year-on-year.
Exports of light industrial products also remained resilient, with exports of home appliances and furniture growing at a rate of more than 10 percent.