China retail sales up 17% in 2011

China's retail sales rose an estimated 17 percent year-on-year to 18 trillion yuan ($2.86 trillion) in 2011 as the government sought to boost domestic consumption, the Commerce Ministry said. The country's retail sales were forecast to grow more than 14 percent annually in 2012, the ministry said, according to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency late Thursday. China's National Bureau of Statistics is expected to issue official figures next week. Wang Bin, deputy head of the ministry's market and consumption department, said retail sales were supported by rising incomes. Chinese leaders have sought to engineer a shift to domestic consumption as exports -- a key driver of the economy -- slow due to turmoil in the key US and European Union markets. Separately, the Ministry of Commerce said growth in foreign direct investment in China slowed sharply in 2011 amid world economic turmoil, rising 9 percent year-on-year to $115 billion, the China Daily newspaper reported Friday. Foreign investment rose more than 17 percent annually to $105.7 billion in 2010. China said last week it will ease restrictions on foreign investment in some sectors while lifting caps on the proportion of foreign capital in others. At the same time, however, the government said it will "withdraw support" for foreign investment in auto manufacturing to encourage the domestic industry in the world's largest car market. Analysts said the move was unlikely to force global auto firms to leave the country, but it would make it harder for new foreign carmakers to enter.