Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, Sep 16 (TMTPOST) – China's total retail sales of consumer goods, which is a major indicator of the country's consumption power, grew by 5.4 percent year on year in August, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday.

The total of the country's retail sales of consumer goods was 3.63 trillion yuan ($523.2 billion) in August, according to the NBS.

Retail sales rose 0.5 percent year on year to 28.26 trillion yuan ($3.96 trillion) in the first eight months, compared with a 0.2 percent fall in the January-July period.

Despite the continued frequent outbreaks of COVID-19, China's consumption growth performed better than expected. In Caixin Media's previous survey of 12 domestic and international institutions, the average forecast of economists for the year-on-year growth of total retail sales of consumer goods in August was 4.2%, with a forecast range of 2.9% to 9%.

Retail sales of commercial goods grew 5.1% year-on-year in August, 1.9 percentage points higher than in July. Restaurant revenue grew 8.4% year-on-year, up 9.9 percentage points, turning positive for the first time since March. Affected by the rebound of the pandemic in August, catering revenue fell 4.5% year on year, the lowest of the year.

Online consumption rebounded slightly due to the frequent pandemic outbreaks. National online retail sales from January to August increased 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 3.7%, and the share of online retail sales of physical goods in total retail sales of consumer goods remained flat at 25.6%.

Consumption in August resembled that in the rebound period of the pandemic. Consumption of essential goods such as food and drugs maintained stable growth, while optional consumption and upgraded consumption were weakened.

Due to the sluggish property market, consumption of household appliances and audio-visual equipment increased by 3.4% year-on-year, 3.7 percentage points lower than the previous number, and consumption of furniture and consumption of construction and decoration materials dropped year-on-year, down 8.1% and 9.1% respectively.