BEIJING - China's urban retail sales in the first half of the year rose 15.9 percent from the same period a year ago, the government statistics agency said Friday, a day after it announced the country's economy grew at its fastest rate in the second quarter since 1995.

The National Bureau Statistics had said Thursday that overall retail sales for the January-June period totaled 4.2 trillion Chinese yuan (US$556 billion; euro402.3 billion), up 15.4 percent from last year.

China's urban retail sales for the first half totaled 2.9 trillion yuan (US$384 billion; euro278 billion), the bureau said in its further breakdown Friday.

Retail sales at the county level and below rose 14.3 percent to 1.4 trillion yuan (US$185 million; euro134 million) in the period from a year ago, it said.

June sales rose 16 percent from the same last year.

Thursday, after the bureau said China's economy expanded 11.9 percent in the April-June quarter from the same quarter in 2006, the government said it will take steps to control the booming economy.

The government has not given any indication if its cooling measures will be another rate hike or other money-tightening steps.