中国人春节开销740亿美元

Other than spending time with family and friends, spending money seems no less of a tradition during the lunar New Year. In the past week, the country’s economy has done really well and it seems Spring is indeed coming.
除了花时间和家人、朋友在一起，花钱似乎仍是农历新年期间的一项传统。在过去一周的时间里，国家经济运行非常好，似乎“春天”真的来了。

Seven days after the Chinese New Year, the festive atmosphere is still in the air, although the holiday has come to an end. As people withdraw from the shopping battlefield and return to daily life and work, here an interesting question: How much did you spend over Spring Festival?
中国新年七天之后，节日气氛仍然可以感觉得到，即使假期已经结束了。在人们退出购物战场，回到日常的生活、工作之时，这里有一个有趣的问题：春节期间你花了多少钱？

Customers said, "I spent about 3 or 4 thousand yuan. I bought makeup, clothes, shoes and much more. It’s the New Year and I need new things too. I don’t think the inflation affected shoppers much."
顾客表示：“我大概花了三四千元。我买了化妆品、衣服、鞋子以及更多的东西。这是新年，我也需要新的东西。我觉得通货膨胀对购物者的影响不太大。”

"I bought shoes, a wool coat and some other stuff. Some prices are a few hundred yuan higher than before, but I think people still kept buying anyway."
“我买了鞋子、一件羊毛大衣和一些其它东西。一些价格比以前高了几百块，但是我认为，无论怎样，大家仍会买。”

The country’s CPI rose 5.4 percent last year, much higher than the previously expected 4 percent. Although there have been loud complaints about inflation and shrinking pockets, they certainly didn’t stop Chinese shoppers from spending more.
中国去年的CPI上涨了5.4%，比之前预计的4%要高得多。虽然人们都在高声抱怨通胀、口袋缩水，但是这些都不能阻止中国购物者花更多钱。

Han Liuchao, management department of Grand Pacific Shopping Center, said, "Although prices are rising due to inflation, people still like to shop, especially when everyone celebrates Spring Festival. We received double the amount of customers over the past week."
太平洋购物中心管理部门的Han Liuchao表示：“虽然物价因为通胀而上涨，但是人们仍然喜欢购物，尤其是在大家都在庆祝春节的时候。过去这一周，我们接待的顾客数量翻倍。”

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to data just released by the Ministry of Commerce, in the past week, shops and restaurants across the country pocketed 470 billion yuan, that’s about 74 billion US dollars.
这只是冰山的一角。根据商务部刚刚公布的数据，过去这一周，全国的商店和餐厅吸金4700亿元，约合740亿美元。

Sales records rise year after year, and this time they were 16 percent higher than that of last year. Aside from strong sales growth in festival-related goods, clothes and food, a much more robust growth was recorded in sales of gold. One well known Beijing gold store saw a 58 percent jump in demand over the past seven days.
销售记录每年都在上涨，这次比去年高出16%。除了应节商品、衣服和食品强劲的销售增长之外，一项更强劲的增长是黄金的销售。北京一间著名的金铺过去七天里需求增加了58%。

Meantime, the dragon is also spreading fortune and wealth overseas. Some major outbound tour agencies expected a 35% rise in foreign tours during Spring Festival holiday.
同时，龙也在海外传播运气和财富。一些大型的境外旅行社预计春节假期期间国外旅行增加了35%。

It has been estimated that a total of 5.7 billion dollars spent on luxury goods alone, will have flown to overseas markets during the Christmas and Spring Festival holiday season, another record high. Such buying potential has given a good start to China’s economic outlook this year, which begs the next question - how long will the spending spree last?
据估计，单单花在奢侈品上的钱共有57亿美元，在圣诞节和春节假期期间将飞到海外市场，这又是另一项新高。这样的购买潜力为中国今年的经济展望开了个好头，这引出了另一个问题——这种消费狂欢将持续多久？