(Yicai Global) May 8 -- Shanghai has sharpened its competitive edge to retain its position as China's top city for big spenders on consumer goods last year, followed by Beijing and the southern dark horse of Guangzhou.

The eastern city's total retail sales of consumer goods expanded by 6.5 percent to CNY1.35 trillion (USD190.5 billion) from 2018, while online sales rose by 15.8 percent to CNY189.7 billion (USD26.8 billion), according to public data. Beijing's tally climbed by 4.4 percent to CNY1.23 trillion.

Guangzhou, No. 3, logged CNY997.6 billion and, interestingly, surpassed the neighboring hub of Shenzhen, No. 7. Shenzhen posted a bigger gross domestic product than Guangzhou last year but residents in the city that Tencent Holdings and Huawei Technologies call home have been consuming less in the past few years, lowering its position.

People around southern Guangdong province may be lured to go to Hong Kong or Guangzhou to shop instead of Shenzhen, Peng Peng, head of the Guangdong Provincial Research Society of Institutional Reform, explained to Yicai Global.

Shenzhen residents may also have found other uses for their available funds as home prices have grown rapidly in the municipality. Revealingly, Shenzhen was one of the top Chinese cities with the highest household debt ratio last year.

The ranking shows that consumer goods sales in each of the top 10 cities surpassed CNY600 billion (USD84.7 billion) over the year. Chongqing was No. 4 on the list with its CNY867 billion, followed by Chengdu and Wuhan. Hangzhou was No. 8, Nanjing No. 9, and Suzhou followed after that.

Amid the Covid-19 epidemic, many Chinese cities have sought to rekindle consumer consumption by launching shopping festivals or issuing huge sums worth of vouchers since March.

Editor: Emmi Laine