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BEIJING: China's retail sales rose by 23.3 per cent in July from a year ago to 862.9 billion yuan (US$126 billion), the government said Wednesday.
In the first seven months of the year, retail sales climbed 21.7 per cent to 5.97 trillion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
Retail sales are the main gauge for consumer spending in the world's fourth-largest economy.
Beijing policy-makers have been working for years to increase private consumption, by boosting incomes and discouraging saving.
The figures came one day after the government announced that inflation in July eased to 6.3 per cent from June's 7.1 per cent as a result of a slowdown in food price rises.
- AFP/yb
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