China’s retail sales slowed in May, missed expectations

 

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China’ retail sales grew by 12.7% to 3.78 trillion yuan in May from a year earlier, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, slowing from the 18.4% growth in the previous month.

In breakdown, retail sales of physical goods rose 10.5% to 3.37 trillion yuan, while catering sales surged 35.1% to 407 billion yuan, showed the data. 

Retail sales of upgraded goods grew rapidly, with sales of communication equipment, gold, silver and jewellery, and sports and entertainment goods rising by 27.4%, 24.4% and 14.3%, respectively showed the data.

In the first five months of the year, China’s retail sales grew by 9.3% year over year, accelerating by 0.8 percentage points from the first four months.

China’s online retail sales reached 5.69 trillion yuan in Jan – May, rising by 13.8% from a year earlier, showed the data.

Of that, online retail sales of physical goods reached 4.8 trillion yuan, rising by 11.8% from a year earlier and accounting for 25.6% of the country’s total retail sales, showed the data.