China retail sales up 9.7% in first two months

BEIJING - China's retail sales of consumer goods grew 9.7 percent year-on-year to reach 6.1 trillion yuan ($965 billion) in the first two months of 2018, official data showed on Wednesday.

The expansion was slightly slower than the 10.2 percent rise seen in 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The data showed sales in rural areas up 10.7 percent, outpacing the 9.6 percent rate in urban areas.

In breakdown, the catering sector reported a 10.1 percent year-on-year rise in revenues, while sales of other consumer products increased 9.7 percent.

Online spending continued to do well, with sales up 37.3 percent to reach 1.2 trillion yuan.

Consumption contributed 58.8 percent of China's economic expansion in 2017.