China's online retail sales rise 29.9 pct in Q1

BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- China's online retail sales maintained steady growth in the first quarter (Q1) of the year as the economy further recovered from the impact of COVID-19.

In the January-March period, online retail sales went up 29.9 percent year on year to 2.81 trillion yuan (about 434.5 billion U.S. dollars), according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce.

Average first-quarter growth of online retail sales for the past two years stood at 13.5 percent, the data showed.

Rural online retail sales reached 439.79 billion yuan, increasing 35.3 percent from a year earlier and resulting in an average first-quarter year-on-year growth of 14.7 percent over the past two years.

Online sales of agricultural products amounted to 105.58 billion yuan in the same period, representing a year-on-year growth of 4.9 percent, the ministry said.