China's retail sales of goods, services up 2.6 pct in first seven months

BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's total retail sales of goods and services, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, increased by 2.6 percent year on year in the first seven months of 2026, official data showed on Monday.

Retail sales of services increased by 5 percent in the January-July period from a year earlier, while that of goods rose by 1.1 percent, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In the first seven months of the year, total retail sales of consumer goods reached 28.8 trillion yuan (about 4.24 trillion U.S. dollars), up by 1.2 percent year on year, the data revealed.

From January to July, online retail sales of goods and services reached 11.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.8 percent year on year.

Specifically, online retail sales of goods expanded by 4.6 percent, while online retail sales of services went up by 5.2 percent, the NBS noted.