Retail sales of consumer commodities rose by 15.6 percent in October to hit a record high of 18.07 billion yuan (about 2.18 billion US dollars) in China's capital city.

The latest figures released by Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau showed despite the negative impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Beijing chalked up 156.68 billion yuan (about 18.88 billion US dollars) in retail sales of consumer commodities from January to October, up 14 percent from the same period last year.

Items for eating, wearing and using sold the best, and retail sales of the catering trade rose rapidly, especially in October, with the sales amounted to 1.17 billion yuan (about 141 million US dollars), up 11.6 percent.

Sales of motor vehicles skyrocketed. More than 300,000 automobiles were sold in the first 10 months of the year, with the retail sales reaching 24.85 billion yuan (about 2.99 billion US dollars), which contributed 46.5 percent to the city's total retail sales of consumer commodities, according to the figures.

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