Retail sales of consumer goods reached 3,982.4 billion yuan in August, up 0.4% year on year. The National Bureau of Statistics of China published the figure on 16 September. It is not adjusted for price changes.
The culprit is clear: cars. Motor vehicle sales fell 18.5% year on year in August and 13.9% since January. Excluding autos, consumption grew 2.5%.
What rose, what fell
Telecommunication equipment jumped 27.3%. Tobacco and liquor gained 12.5%. Gold, silver and jewellery dropped 17.5%, furniture 7.9% and petroleum products 7.0%.
Catering did slightly better than retail, up 1.1% in August. Rural areas (+1.6%) outpaced cities (+0.2%).
Proximity formats gain ground
Over the first eight months, among enterprises above the statistical threshold, convenience stores grew 5.5% and supermarkets 3.8%. Department stores lost 3.0%, specialty stores 2.2% and brand-exclusive stores 10.0%. For Western brands operating in China, that last figure speaks for itself.
Online sales of goods reached 8,419.5 billion yuan from January to August (+4.3%). Set against total consumer goods sales over the same period (32,756.9 billion), that is roughly a quarter, by our calculation.
Sources
Photo: Hermann Luyken, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed, CC0.