A night view of the city of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province. [Photo/Xi'an municipal government's WeChat account]

From 2012 to 2021, the retail market in Northwest China's Shaanxi province continued to flourish, with market demand gradually increasing, according to official statistics.

The province's total retail sales of consumer goods increased from 475.65 billion yuan ($66.86 billion) in 2012 to 1.03 trillion yuan in 2021, with an average annual growth of 8.9 percent.

Of that, the province's retail sales in urban markets increased from 418.02 billion yuan in 2012 to 899.78 billion yuan in 2021, while in rural markets it rose from 57.64 billion yuan in 2012 to 125.27 billion yuan in 2021.

As of 2021, the province had a total of 10,795 trade legal person enterprises above a designated size – those with annual revenue of 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) or more – including 925 that were State-owned and collectively-controlled enterprises, and 9,692 that were privately held enterprises and other types.

Over the past decade, the number of wholesale and retail chain enterprises in the province continued to increase, while the number of chain stores increased from 26 in 2012 to 98 in 2021, an increase of 2.8 times.

The number of operating stores in the province expanded from 659 in 2012 to 6,552 in 2021, an increase of 8.9 times. The total sales of goods in chain stores increased from 27.96 billion yuan in 2012 to 106.92 billion yuan in 2021, an average annual growth rate of 16.1 percent.

Meanwhile, chain enterprises have continued to create employment opportunities for the public. The number of employees in such enterprises surged from 19,293 in 2012 to 57,181, an average annual growth rate of 12.8 percent.

Consumer demand for services has also grown. In 2021, the proportion of spending on services to per capita consumption expenditure of residents in the province grew by nearly 10 percentage points compared with 2012.

Last year, Shaanxi received 390.58 million domestic tourists, an increase of 70.3 percent on 2012, with domestic tourism revenue of 343.4 billion yuan, an increase of 113.3 percent on 2012.

In addition, the consumption structure of residents has been upgraded. The per capita living consumption expenditure of urban and rural residents in the province increased from 15,333 yuan in 2012 to 24,784 yuan in 2021 and from 5,115 yuan in 2012 to 13,158 yuan in 2021, respectively.