China Retail Sales

Data Consumption

Source: National Bureau of Statistics China
Source Link: https://www.stats.gov.cn/
Frequency: Monthly
Next Release(s): September 14th, 2025 9:00 PM

Latest Updates

China’s retail sales fell -0.14% MoM, the 2nd straight monthly decline, but were up +3.7% YoY (vs 4.6% YoY expected) in July 2025. The monthly decline was led by weakness in spending on autos and petroleum products.
- Urban sales grew +3.6% YoY, while rural sales rose +3.9%.
- Online physical goods sales increased +6.3% YoY, accounting for 24.9% of total retail sales; food (+14.7%), clothing (+1.7%), and use goods (+5.8%) all gained.
- Strongest category gains: household appliances (+28.7%), furniture (+20.6%), communication devices (+14.9%), and recreation goods (+13.7%).
- Petroleum products (-8.3% YoY), autos (-1.5%), and building materials (-0.5%) saw declines.
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Chinese retail sales dropped -0.16% MoM but were up 4.8% YoY (vs 5.6% YoY expected) in June 2025, with sales of goods up 5.3% YoY. In H1 2025, total retail sales were up 5.0% YoY.
- Urban retail sales rose 4.8% YoY in June, while rural sales increased 4.5% YoY.
- Online physical goods retail rose 6.0% YoY YTD and accounted for 24.9% of total retail sales.
- Strong June category growth: household appliances (+32.4% YoY), cultural office supplies (+24.4% YoY), and furniture (+28.7% YoY).
- Petroleum product sales fell -7.3% YoY; auto sales rose 4.6% YoY.
- Sales of sports and recreational goods rose 9.5% YoY, while cosmetics (-2.3% YoY) and beverages (-4.4% YoY) declined.
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Chinese retail sales rose 0.93% MoM and 6.4% YoY in May, up from 5.1% YoY in April and well above expectations of a 5.0% YoY increase.
- Urban retail sales rose 6.5% YoY in May vs. 5.4% YoY in rural areas; YTD growth was 5.1% and 4.9%, respectively.
- Goods sales rose 6.5% YoY in May while catering revenue increased 5.9% YoY.
- Household appliances (+53.0% YoY), cultural office supplies (+30.5% YoY), and communication equipment (+33.0% YoY) led category growth.
- Petroleum product sales fell -7.0% YoY and auto sales grew just 1.1% YoY in May.
- Online physical goods retail rose 6.3% YTD and now accounts for 24.5% of total retail sales.
- Several categories saw strong growth in May, leading to the fastest annual increase in retail spending since December 2023.
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Chinese retail sales increased 0.24% MoM and 5.1% YoY in April, down from 5.9% YoY in March and below expectations of a 5.5% YoY gain. The monthly rate was the slowest June 2024.
- Auto sales were significantly weaker in April, up just 0.7% YoY after a 5.5% YoY gain in March.
- Weak energy prices continues to put downward pressure on petroleum product sales, which fell -5.7% YoY in April after a -1.9% YoY decline in March.
- The large food and appliances segments drove the gains in retail sales, up 14.0% YoY and 38.8% YoY, respectively.
- Sales growth in office supplies (33.5% YoY), recreational goods (+23.3% YoY), and daily necessities (+7.6% YoY) are also all firmer suggesting that China’s consumer is solid to start the second quarter.
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Chinese retail sales increased 0.58% MoM and 5.9% YoY in March, blowing past expectations of a smaller 4.2% YoY increase.
- This is the strongest annual increase since December 2023.
- Retail sales by larger firms were up 8.5% YoY, up from 4.3% YoY in the Jan-Feb period and the strongest since November 2023.
- Food and beverage sales were up 5.6% YoY, up from 4.3% YoY in the Jan-Feb period.
- Strong gains were seen in household appliances & A/V equipment (+35.1% YoY), recreational goods (+26.2% YoY), furniture (+29.5% YoY), and communications equipment (+28.6% YoY).
- It’s unclear if the broad acceleration in retail sales growth was a result of Chinese consumers increasing spending ahead of tariffs, but large increases in electronics and phone sales likely could have been impacted.
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Chinese retail sales increased 4.0% YoY in the January-February period, in line with expectations and higher than the 3.7% YoY increase in December.
- On a monthly basis, retail sales were up 0.19% MoM in January and 0.35% MoM in February with the latter rate being the strongest since October 2024.
- On a trailing 11-month basis, retail sales were up 0.5% MoM which is the highest in a year.
- The largest segment of sales, autos, was down -4.4% YoY, limiting the strong gains seen in other segments. Sales excluding autos were up 4.8% YoY.
- Foodstuff sales surged 11.5% YoY, the highest annual increase since May 2022.
- Other major increases were seen in communication devices (+26.2% YoY), office supplies (+21.8% YoY), and recreation goods (+25.0% YoY)
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Chinese retail sales came in at 0.12% MoM and 3.7% YoY in December, beating out expectations of a 3.5% YoY increase. The acceleration in retail sales growth came from higher sales of physical goods which were up 3.9% YoY, up from 2.8% YoY in November. Specifically, there was a strong increase in household appliances sales, surging 39.3% YoY in December and 12.3% in 2024 as a whole. Additionally, strong communication devices (+14.0% YoY) and daily necessities (+6.3% YoY) sales helped drive growth. These were offset, however, by a weak rise in auto sales (+0.5% YoY) and a slight decline in clothing sales (-0.3% YoY).

The monthly trend in retail sales growth has remained stable and increasing in the last few months. In Q4, monthly gains (based on an 11-month trailing sum) averaged 0.34%, up from an average of 0.21% in both Q2 and and Q3. This suggests that consumer strength has firmed up.

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Retail sales were a big miss for China, up only 3.0% YoY in November vs expectations of a 4.6% YoY increase. On a monthly basis, sales were up just 0.2% MoM. Food and beverage sales growth remained solid at 4.0% YoY, but there were notable declines in beverages (-4.3% YoY), alcohol (-3.1% YoY), cosmetics (-26.4% YoY), jewelry (-5.9% YoY), office supplies (-5.9% YoY), and communication equipment (-7.7% YoY). Many of these segments were positive on a YTD basis suggesting that November sales were especially weak.

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