Beijingers to Spend More on HealthcareBeijingers are expected to spend more on healthcare, recreations, cultural activities and communication tools during this year, according to the Beijing Municipal Commercial Information and Consultative Center.The money spent on other articles nearly doubles that on foods and five times that on clothing, and occupies 56.5 per cent of the city's social retail turnover of consuming goods. Beijingers spent impressively more in non-commercial fields last year. Their expenditures on healthcare, communications and recreational, educational, and cultural services jumped greatly over those in 1998. The increasing rates are respectively 47.6 per cent, 26.6 per cent and 18.4 per cent. According to results of Mainland Information Company, the report said Beijing joined with the other 13 major Chinese cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, in a revolution of the consumption make-up of their residents. That is, the residents of the 14 cities will not have the great proportions of their expenditures go to the traditional saving and purchases of big electricity appliance like refrigerators and televisions, but to investment and purchases of housing, vehicles and services. According to the survey, only 11 per cent of the people the company surveyed said they stuck to saving and purchases of major electrical appliances as their major expenditures in 1999 and 32 per cent said they would this year. |
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