Domestic consumption drives China's economic growth in April: economist

Domestic consumption effectively drove the growth of China's economy in April, while the 9.3-percent increase in exports proved the growing global popularity of Chinese products, said Gong Jiong, professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics, on Monday.

China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, expanded 5.1 percent year on year in April, official data showed Monday. Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 3.7 trillion yuan (about 517 billion U.S. dollars) last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In April, China's total value of imports and exports of goods was 3.8 trillion yuan, up by 5.6 percent year on year. The value of exports specifically came in at 2.2 trillion yuan, up by 9.3 percent.

"The consumption increase of 5.1 percent, this number is extremely important in my view, as the entire economy is counting on the consumption to take the lead to drive the growth pattern here. It is amazing to see that the April exports number is a 9.3-percent increase in spite of the tariffs imposed by Washington. We understand very well, in April, the bulk of the month, exports to the United States pretty much stopped. This shows how much resilience, how appealing Chinese products are global-wise," said Gong.

The professor stressed that China's whole consumption structure improved in the first four months, with the increase of consumption on services surpassing the rise of consumption on goods.

In the first four months, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 16.1 trillion yuan (about 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars), up by 4.7 percent year on year, while the retail sales of services grew by 5.1 percent year on year.

"This is the money people spend, but spend on what? It's quite interesting to see that the growth in expenditures on services was more than the expenditure increase on buying goods. This represents an overall trend in the Chinese consumption pattern," said Gong.

Domestic consumption drives China's economic growth in April: economist

Iran is not only ready for talks with the U.S. on the basis of mutual respect, but also fully prepared for war, said Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Monday.

Araghchi accused the U.S. and Israel of playing a direct role in recent unrest across Iran. He said the Iranian government has obtained evidence showing that the recent disturbances, including attacking police stations and burning public facilities, were carried out by "terrorists" backed by the U.S. and Israel.

The Iranian government announced a three-day nationwide mourning period from Monday to honor police officers, security personnel, and civilians killed during the disturbances.

According to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency, at least 111 members of Iran's security forces have been killed in the unrest over the past two weeks. Iranian authorities have not released official casualty figures for protesters.

At midday on Monday, Iranians remained largely without internet access, according to on-the-ground reporting by a China Media Group (CM) journalist, who also said domestic phone services have not been disrupted in Iran over the past 24 hours.

Security has been reinforced across Tehran, with police increasing patrols in key locations and blocks.

Despite heightened security measures, traffic conditions in Tehran were reported to be normal.

Iran ready for talks with US based on mutual respect: FM