China's consumption maintains growth as services gain momentum

China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, expanded 1.9 percent year on year in the first four months of 2026, official data showed Monday.

During the January-April period, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached about 16.49 trillion yuan (about 2.41 trillion U.S. dollars). Excluding automobiles, retail sales grew by 3.1 percent to 15.2 trillion yuan, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Urban retail sales totaled 14.29 trillion yuan in the January-April period, up 1.8 percent year on year, while rural retail sales posted faster growth of 2.8 percent, reaching 2.2 trillion yuan.

Retail sales of services grew by 5.6 percent year on year in the first four months, accelerating by 0.1 percentage points from the first quarter. Fast growth was recorded in telecommunications and information services, tourism and rental services, cultural and recreational services, and transportation and travel services, the data showed.

From January to April, total online retail sales of goods and services reached 6.53 trillion yuan, up 6.6 percent year on year. Online goods sales rose 5.7 percent to nearly 4.12 trillion yuan, accounting for 25 percent of total retail sales of consumer goods. Online services sales grew at an 8.3 percent rate, reaching 2.41 trillion yuan, according to the data.

In April alone, total retail sales edged up 0.2 percent year on year. On a monthly basis, the volume went down 0.48 percent from March.

NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui attributed April's slowdown partly to a high base from the same period last year, stressing that the overall trend of steady consumption growth remains unchanged.

"Service retail sales picked up pace, some upgraded consumer goods continued to post relatively fast growth, and new forms of consumption further expanded," Fu noted.

Looking ahead, China has many favorable conditions for expanding consumption, Fu said, citing the country's super-sized market, rich consumption scenarios, steady progress in new urbanization, and deeper urban-rural integration as factors underpinning growth.

Meanwhile, increasingly diversified supplies of goods and services, along with continued improvements in the modern logistics system, will help expand and upgrade household consumption, Fu said, adding the government's policy measures to boost consumption are also taking effect, providing support for sustained consumption growth.