Consumers remain confident in first quarter

Customers buy cosmetics at a store in Tanggu, Tianjin. First-quarter retail sales stood at 4.93 trillion yuan ($795 billion), up 14.8 percent year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics said. HE MAOFENG/CHINA DAILY

Chinese consumers' confidence stayed high in the first quarter even as the economy slowed, The Nielsen Co said on Tuesday.

The consulting firm's confidence index stood at 111, unchanged from the previous quarter and 3 points higher than a year earlier.

The global average was 96 in the first three months of 2014.

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"Despite the economic slowdown, Chinese consumer fundamentals remain strong. And we believe consumer confidence will remain at a high level throughout 2014," said Yan Xuan, president of Nielsen Greater China.

Economic growth dipped to 7.4 percent in the first quarter, raising the risk that the country could miss this year's economic growth target of 7.5 percent. It would be the first such miss in 15 years.

"Besides robust consumer confidence, the healthy growth of disposable income for both rural and urban residents, both on an annual and quarterly basis, enabled the continuous growth of overall retail sales in China," said Yan.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, first-quarter retail sales stood at 4.93 trillion yuan ($795 billion), up 14.8 percent year-on-year.

Nielsen's research showed that fast-moving consumer goods sales in China grew 8 percent in the first quarter, 2 percentage points faster than in the same period last year.

Sales of durable goods, usually defined as items meant to last for at least three years, recorded double-digit growth in the first quarter. For vehicles, the figure was 12.3 percent; for communications devices, it was 14.7 percent.

Nielsen found personal digital appliances led consumers' shopping lists, closely followed by home appliances.