The Hunan Provincial Bureau of Statistics released the province's consumer market data for the first five months on June 20. From January to May, the province's consumer market maintained steady growth as a whole, with the total retail sales of consumer goods reaching 735.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1%. The growth rate was 2.5 percentage points higher than the national average.

The retail sales of basic living goods grew steadily. From January to May, among legal entities above the designated size in wholesale and retail trades in the province, the retail sales of basic living commodities reached 62.27 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. The retail sales of grain, oil, food, beverages, tobacco and alcohol all achieved double-digit growth.

Online consumption continued to grow. Online retail sales of physical goods increased by 10.6% year-on-year, 2.7 percentage points higher than the growth rate registered in the January-April period.

There was a faster growth in retail sales of petroleum and related products, a narrowing decline in retail sales of automobiles, and a recovery of consumption of accommodation and catering. In the first five months, the province's retail sales of legal entities above the designated size in accommodation and catering industries reached 10.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. Retail sales in May fell slightly by 0.8%, compared with an 8.7% decrease in April.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn