BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Consumption has played an increasingly strong role in driving China’s economic growth, with consumption structure constantly upgraded, the Ministry of Commerce said on on its website on October 22.
In the first three quarters, retail sales reached 27.4 trillion yuan, up 9.3 percent on year. In September alone, retail sales grew 9.2 percent year on year to 3.2 trillion yuan, up from 9 percent in August, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In the first three quarters, there is a strong demand for quality goods, especially fashion products and green intelligent ones.
During the period, service-oriented consumption witnessed improved quality and expanded volume, accounting for 52.6 percent of the total.
In the first nine months, online sales rose 27.7 percent on year and made up for 17.5 percent of the total retail sales.
Retail sales in rural areas increased 10.4 percent year on year to 3.96 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, outpacing growth in urban regions, where sales rose 9.1 percent.
The average year-on-year CPI growth for the first nine months stood at 2.1 percent. (Edited by Zhang Yuan, zhangyuan11@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
