China's retail sales up 16.4 pct in Jan.-Sept.

A customer buys edible oil at a supermarket in Qingzhou, east China's Shandong Province, Aug. 9, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Jilin)

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 16.4 percent year on year in the first three quarters this year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed (NBS) Monday.

The country's retail sales of consumer goods totaled around 31.8 trillion yuan (about 4.9 trillion U.S. dollars) in Jan.-Sept. period, data from the NBS showed.

In September, China's total retail sales of consumer goods stood at 3.68 trillion yuan, up 4.4 percent year on year.

The figure increased by 7.8 percent from September 2019, putting the September average growth of the past two years at 3.8 percent, according to the NBS.

In the first three quarters, the catering industry saw a year-on-year increase of 29.8 percent in revenue, as the hardest-hit sector continued to recover from COVID-19 disruptions.

Online consumption remained a bright spot, with online retail sales rising 18.5 percent year on year to reach about 9.19 trillion yuan in the Jan.-Sept. period.