Catering industry feeling effects of graft crackdown

Greatly affected by the government's crackdown on wasting public money on luxury banquets, growth in China's catering industry has plunged to its slowest rate in a decade, the China Cuisine Association said on Wednesday.

In the first two months of this year, which included the Spring Festival holiday, the sales revenue of the country's catering industry reached 403 billion yuan ($65 billion), a year-on-year growth of 8.4 percent, the slowest growth in the past 10 years, according to the association.

"The slump in the industry, especially for luxury restaurants, has occurred since late last year," said Su Qiucheng, head of the China Cuisine Association.