China's retail sales for the week-long Spring Festival holiday rose 16.2 percent year-on-year, boosted by a variety of promotional events, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed on Saturday.

Shops and restaurants across the country pocketed 470 billion yuan ($74.4 billion) in sales volume, with that of clothes, jewelry and foods up 18.7 percent, 16.4 percent and 16.2 percent respectively, the MOC said.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell on January 23 this year, is traditionally a time for family reunions in the nation. Businesses experience a boom during the period as people flood to shops and restaurants.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2012)