Retail sales

    CHINA’S retail sales will grow 11 percent year on year in 2015, Yu Bin, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said Friday.

    That would be a slight slowing from the 12 percent annual gain seen in 2014, which Yu said would be attributable to sluggish property and auto sales.

    Anti-dumping probe

    THE Ministry of Commerce said Friday that it had launched an investigation into claims that the European Union, the United States and Japan were selling a paper product at unfairly low prices.

    The ministry said the investigation will decide whether the dumping of unbleached sack paper, used for food packaging, has occurred. The investigation will last one year, with the potential for a six-month extension, it said.

    Hyundai beats VW

    HYUNDAI Motor Co. beat Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co.’s Buick to be the top-ranked mass-market auto brand in China in a State-backed survey, even as the South Korean automaker’s deliveries here fell in the first quarter.

    BYD Co. was the top-ranked Chinese automaker in the China Brand Power Index, putting it ahead of Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. Audi was first in the luxury auto category, according to the survey.

    Coal production

    CHINA produced 850 million tons of coal in the first quarter of the year, down 3.5 percent compared to the same period in 2014, Xinhua said yesterday, citing figures from the China Coal Industry Association. China’s coal sector has been suffering huge losses as a result of a collapse in prices brought about by weak demand as well as a chronic supply glut. More than 80 percent of firms suffered losses in the first two months of this year, Xinhua said.