China's consumer goods industry maintains steady growth momentum in January-April

China's consumer goods industry maintained steady growth momentum in the first four months of 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Thursday.

In the first four months, value added in the consumer goods industry increased by 4.3 percent year on year, accounting for 27 percent of the total industrial value added by all industrial enterprises above designated size -- those with primary business revenue reaching 20 million yuan (around 3 million U.S. dollars).

During the period, consumer goods firms above the designated size achieved a total business revenue of about 10.3 trillion yuan (about 1.52 trillion U.S. dollars), an increase of 2.7 percent over the same period last year.

Additionally, these companies accounted for roughly 30 percent of employment, total profits and export delivery generated by all large-scale industrial enterprises in China.

So far, the country has a total of 230 million varieties of consumer goods. More than 100 categories, including home appliances, furniture, stationery items and sports accessories, clothing and home textiles, rank among the world's top in terms of production volume.

In addition, the supply of innovative products such as smart home devices, smart wearables, humanoid robots, and drones has been steadily increasing.

China's consumer goods industry maintains steady growth momentum in January-April

The swelling Euphrates River has submerged farmland and washed away roads and bridges in Syrian provinces of Deir al-Zour and Raqqa since late May.

The Syrian transitional government has ordered residents along the riverbanks to evacuate as the flood water continues to rise and has inundated villages in the region.

"No one has come to help us. The entire area is submerged. The water level has risen as high as the houses and is still rising. All people are in a hurry to find a shelter. We have nowhere to go," said a local resident.

The flood has caused the Euphrates' water surface to expand to three times its normal extent, from 60.9 square kilometers to 188.7 square kilometers.

The disaster stems from abnormal torrential rain in upstream regions coupled with large-scale water releases from dams, according to Syrian news media reports.

Citing regional water authority sources, Turkish media reported that months of high precipitation raised water levels at Turkey's Ataturk Dam, prompting authorities to carry out "controlled water releases," with the spillway gates opened for the first time in seven years.

Euphrates floods hit northeastern Syria