China October Retail Sales Rise 4.9%, Beats Expectations
China’s retail sales of consumer goods rose by 4.9 percent in October from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday, ahead of a Reuters poll predicting 3.5 percent growth.
Total retail sales for the month was 4,045.4 billion renminbi, or $6.34 billion. October sales of apparel and accessories dipped 3.3 percent, while cosmetics grew 7.2 percent percent, gold and jewelry surged 12.6 percent year-over-year. October retail sales growth rate in rural areas slightly outpaced urban centers with it growing 5.6 percent year-on-year, whereas the latter grew 4.8 percent.
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COVID-19 cluster outbreaks, energy shortages, flooding and a slump in the property sector have been weighing down China’s economic expansion this year with growth slowing in the third quarter to 4.9 percent year-over-year, down from the 7.9 percent in the second quarter and 18.3 percent in the first.
In the first 10 months, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 35,851.1 billion renminbi, up by 14.9 percent year-on-year. In the first 10 months, the total online retail sales was 10,376.5 billion renminbi, an increase of 17.4 percent year-on-year.
Specifically, the online retail sales of physical goods were 8,497.9 billion renminbi, a year-on-year growth of 14.6 percent, accounting for 23.7 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods.
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