China’s retail sales grew 10.8 percent year on year to 2.49 trillion yuan ($ 390.89 billion) in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sept 13.

The growth rate picked up slightly from 10.5 percent in July.

In the first eight months, retail sales grew 10.5 percent.

Growth in rural areas continued to outpace that in cities.

Sales in rural areas rose 11.9 percent in August and 11.7 percent in the January-August period, in contrast to the 10.6-percent and 10.3-percent growth seen in urban areas.