(Yicai Global) Oct. 18 -- China’s retail sales of consumer goods jumped 16.4 percent in the first three quarters of this year, according to official data.

Sales totaled CNY31.81 trillion (USD4.94 trillion) in the nine months ended Sept. 30, which was a gain of 8 percent from the same period of 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed today.

Items related to consumption upgrades and daily life staples saw faster growth, Fu Linghui, a NBS spokesperson, told a press conference.

The breakdown of figures showed product sales rose 15 percent to CNY28.53 trillion (USD4.43 trillion) from a year ago, averaging growth of 4.5 percent over the two years. Catering surged almost 30 percent to CNY3.27 trillion (USD508.2 billion), or by an average 0.6 percent clip over two years.

Online retail sales gained 18.5 percent to CNY9.19 trillion, while e-sales of physical goods tallied CNY7.50 trillion, a 15.2 percent jump, accounting for 23.6 percent of China’s total retail sales of consumer goods.

Among the physical items sold, sales of food, clothing and daily necessities surged 20.2 percent, 15.6 percent and 14.5 percent, respectively.

Last month, retail sales of consumer goods rose 4.4 percent to CNY3.68 trillion, a 1.9 percentage point gain on August. Factoring out price changes, total sales rose 2.5 percent year on year in real terms in September, according to the NBS.

Editor: Peter Thomas