BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce said Wednesday that home appliance sales under the country's rural subsidy program dropped 25.7 percent year-on-year to 13.74 billion yuan ($2.18 billion) in January.

During the period, 5.18 million units of subsidized home appliance were sold to rural consumers, down 32.5 percent from the previous year, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The ministry attributed the decreases to a bigger comparison base last year and the year's week-long Chinese Spring Festival, which started Jan 22.

Major home appliance makers that won the bid for the program, including Haier Group and Hisense Group, all saw year-on-year growth drops of over 30 percent, as subsidies ended in the provinces of Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, as well as the northern coastal city of Qingdao last year.

Under the subsidy program, farmers can receive subsidies equal to 13 percent of the prices of designated types of refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, computers, air conditioners, mobile phones, water heaters, microwave ovens and traditional ovens.

China first introduced the program in Shandong, Henan, Sichuan and Qingdao in December 2007 on a trial basis, and expanded it to the whole nation in February 2009, with an aim to spur rural consumption amid the global economic slowdown.

As of the end of January, the government issued 60.59 billion yuan in subsidies on the sales of about 220 million sets of home appliances valued at 519.66 billion yuan, according to the ministry.