China's retail sales up 3.1 pct in June

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, went up 3.1 percent year on year in June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday.

The growth reversed from declines seen in April and May.

On a monthly basis, the country's retail sales increased by 0.53 percent to 3.87 trillion yuan (about 573 billion U.S. dollars) last month, according to the NBS.

In the second quarter, retail sales declined 4.6 percent year on year, dragging down the first-half figure to drop 0.7 percent compared with the Jan.-June period last year.