Suzhou's economic performance from January to May

The Suzhou Bureau of Statistics on June 25 released the city's economic performance data for the first five months of the year.

From January to May, Suzhou's total retail sales of consumer goods reached 413.29 billion yuan ($56.83 billion), a year-on-year increase of 9.8 percent. Within this, the wholesale and retail sectors saw a 10.1 percent increase, while the accommodation and catering sectors experienced a 6.7 percent rise.

The total import and export value during this period was about 1.02 trillion yuan, marking a 10.4 percent year-on-year growth. Exports amounted to 628.36 billion yuan, up 9.9 percent, and imports totaled 390.48 billion yuan, up 11.2 percent.

Notably, private enterprises' import and export values grew by 16.5 percent, accounting for 39.0 percent of the total trade volume, a 2.1 percentage point increase from the previous year.

The city's consumer price index) in May rose by 0.5 percent year-on-year. Among the eight major categories of goods and services, clothing prices increased by 3.6 percent, housing by 0.4 percent, household goods and services by 0.9 percent, education, culture, and entertainment by 1.2 percent, healthcare by 4.8 percent, and other goods and services by 5.5 percent.