China’s retail sales of consumer goods up 3.2% in Sep, driven by policy supports

China's domestic consumption kept increasing in September, with a faster rise in the sales of auto and home appliances, highlighting the nation's significant potential for sustaining economic growth amid a slew of policy supports.

In September, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 4.1112 trillion yuan ($577.45 billion), increased by 3.2 percent year-on-year, 1.1 percentage points faster than the previous month, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.

Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the NBS, said during a press conference on Friday that a series of policy supports launched in the first three quarters have taken significant effect, including releasing domestic demand potential and relevant industrial potential.

Sheng stated that domestic retail sales of automobiles grew by 0.4 percent, reversing a negative trend after several consecutive months of decline, including a 7.3 percent drop in August. Retail sales of household appliances surged by 20.5 percent in September, a significant acceleration of 17.1 percentage points compared to August.

Sheng attributed the growth to government support including the promotion of large-scale renewal of equipment and trade-ins of consumer goods nationwide.

From January to September, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 35.3564 trillion yuan, up 3.3 percent year-on-year, according to the NBS.

China's online retail sales reached 10.8930 trillion yuan, up 8.6 percent year-on-year. Online retail sales of goods reached 9.0721 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.9 percent, accounting for 25.7 percent of the total retail sales. In the first three quarters, retail sales of services increased by 6.7 percent year-on-year.