Beijing’s retail sales grow 19% in Jan-July

The Chinese capital of Beijing witnessed a year-on-year growth of 19.2 percent in retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, in the first seven months this year, the Beijing municipal statistics bureau said. From January to July, Beijing’s retail sales of consumer goods reached 833.19 billion yuan ($128.56 billion). In terms of consumption patterns, the retail sales of commodities reached 765.97 billion yuan, up by 16.4 percent year-on-year, and catering revenue was 67.22 billion yuan, up 65.7 percent year-on-year.