China retail sales likely to grow 16 pct in 2010: report

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's retail sales will grow around 16 percent in 2010 as boosting domestic demand will remain the focus of policy, a newspaper cited a commerce official as saying on Thursday.

Wang Bin, an official in the market operation department of the Ministry of Commerce, said consumption had not yet recovered to the rapid expansion path seen before the global financial crisis, and there was still plenty of space to expand demand in the country, the China Securities Journal reported.

The 16 percent growth rate in retail sales is largely in line with what China posted in the first quarters of this year.

He said though it was not certain whether all stimulus polices like promoting car sales to rural consumers would continue next year, expanding domestic demand was poised to be a key note of macro policy.

Wang made the remarks at a forum held by the National Bureau of Statistics.

(Reporting by Huang Yan and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)