If there was one occasion that shattered the myth that China was a nation of savers, it was last November 11– the day marketed as ‘Single’s Day’, a shoppers’ celebration aimed at boosting sales.

The plan appeared to have worked: in just 24 hours, a remarkable 35 billion yuan ($5.6 billion) worth of transactions were completed on just one Website Taobao – the widely popular eBay-like e-commerce platform of the Chinese company Alibaba. In contrast, India's e-commerce market in 2013 was valued at around $16 billion – three times the volume of transactions took place on Taobao in a single day. Next week, the Alibaba Group is expected to file a prospectus ahead of its much-anticipated US initial public offering, which, some analysts suggest, may come close to Facebook’s $16-billion IPO in 2012.

That in itself is a remarkable feat for a Chinese company. But Jack Ma’s Alibaba has also almost single-handedly transformed Chinese retail – the company today accounts for four-fifths of all Chinese online consumption.

The Chinese Government is betting on the success of companies such as Alibaba in its bid to rebalance the economy by boosting domestic demand as a driver of growth, and phasing out its investment-driven model amid worsening imbalances.

Economic data released on Wednesday showed that growth had slowed to 7.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year, down from 7.7 per cent in 2013.

Announcing Wednesday’s data, Sheng Laiyun, Director-General, National Bureau of Statistics, said the biggest source of optimism was the 12 per cent growth in retail sales, which reached 6.2 trillion yuan (around $1 trillion).

Online retail, he said, was key to driving consumption.

“Despite the slowdown in investment, total retail sales of consumer products maintained stable growth,” he said. “Consumption now contributes more to growth than before”.

Online retail sales grew 51 per cent in the first quarter, he said.

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