China has risen to become the eighth-largest cosmetics market in the world and the second-largest in Asia, state media reported. Figures released by the China Association of Fragrance, Flavor and Cosmetics Industry indicated that around US$5.5 billion in beauty products were sold in China in 2002.
An association official said that China's large population and the increasing amount of disposable income in the country were behind the jump in cosmetics consumption, adding that as a cosmetics market China was still largely untapped.