China's light industry added value up 7.3% year-on-year in first quarter: Chinese report

According to the latest data from the China Light Industry Federation, in the first quarter of this year (January to March), the added value of light industries above a certain scale increased by 7.3% compared to the same period last year, while operating income increased by 4.8%.
The total output of 53 of the 90 major light industrial products monitored by the National Bureau of Statistics increased.
The added value of manufacturing industries such as toys, home appliances, etc. maintained double-digit growth. As a result of the implementation of various consumption promotion policies, retail sales of 11 types of light industry products increased by 9.7% year-on-year to 2.1 trillion yen during the same period.
Of this, retail sales of furniture increased by 18.1%, and the growth rate increased by 14.5 percentage points from the previous fiscal year.
In addition, exports of light industry continued to perform well in the first quarter. The export value of 10 out of 21 light industry industries
increased from the same period last year. Exports of home appliances, daily chemical products, and light industrial machinery maintained double-digit growth.