Nearly a third of retail sales in China last year were conducted using bank cards as Chinese financial institutions rapidly expanded electronic banking services nationwide.
Their increasing use boosted the nation’s retail sales and shored up economic growth last year, helping China brave the global slowdown, said Su Ning, a Deputy Governor of the central bank. Retail sales worth RMB4 trillion (USD58.5 billion) or 32 percent of the total in 2009, were transacted through bank cards, the statement said.
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(Source: scmp.com)