Economic Buzz: China?s retail sales growth improves in first quarter

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first quarter, China?s total retail sales of consumer goods reached 12,769.5 billion yuan, increasing by 2.4% year on year. This is 0.7 percentage points higher than the growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2025.

By area, retail sales in urban regions were 11,057.4 billion yuan, up 2.3% year on year, while rural retail sales reached 1,712.1 billion yuan, growing faster at 3.1%.

By type of consumption, retail sales of goods totaled 11,307.2 billion yuan, rising by 2.2%, while catering revenue came in at 1,462.3 billion yuan, increasing by 4.2%.

Sales of essential goods and some upgraded products grew strongly. Retail sales of grain, oil and food rose by 10.0%, clothes, shoes, hats and textiles by 9.3%, communication equipment by 20.8%, and gold, silver and jewelry by 12.6% among enterprises above the designated size.

In March, total retail sales increased by 1.7% year on year and edged up by 0.14% compared to the previous month.

In the first quarter, retail sales of services grew by 5.5% year on year, the same pace as last year. Areas such as communication and information services, tourism-related services, and cultural, sports and leisure services saw strong growth.

Online retail sales of goods and services reached 4,977.4 billion yuan in the first quarter, up 8.0% year on year. Within this, online sales of goods were 3,161.4 billion yuan, rising 7.5% and making up 24.8% of total retail sales, while online services sales totaled 1,816.0 billion yuan, growing by 8.8%.

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