A woman walks out of an electronics and

A woman walks out of an electronics and home appliance department store in Zhengzhou on January 19, 2009 in central China's Henan province, past a cardboard cutout offering a lunar new year greeting. China's retail sales, a main measure of consumer spending in the world's third-largest economy, increased 21.6 percent in 2008, the National Bureau of Statistics said on January 22, but. the figure, compared with 16.8 percent growth in 2007, has been disputed by some economists, who believe the nation's shops and malls are actually far less busy than the official data suggest. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)