China retail sales up 10.4% in H1

BEIJING - China's retail sales grew 10.4 percent year on year to 14.16 trillion yuan ($2.32 trillion) in the first half of 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

The growth was down 0.2 percentage point from the rate seen in the first quarter.

In June alone, retail sales went up 10.6 percent, accelerating 0.5 percentage point from May.

In breakdown, the catering sector reported an 11.5-percent year-on-year rise in revenues from January to June, while sales of other consumer products increased 10.3 percent.

Online retail sales continued to be a bright spot, surging 39.1 percent year on year to 1.65 trillion yuan.

To steer the economy onto a more sustainable track, the government has been trying to drive domestic consumption and move away from an overreliance on investment and exports.

Consumption contributed 51.2 percent to GDP growth last year, three percentage points more than the previous year.