BEIJING — China’s retail sales of consumer goods rose 8.4 percent year on year in the first half of 2019 to 19.52 trillion yuan ($2.85 trillion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said July 15.

The pace was 0.1 percentage points faster than the first quarter, the NBS said in a statement.

Online sales surged 17.8 percent year on year to 4.82 trillion yuan in the first half, 2.5 percentage points faster than the first quarter.

Online sales of physical goods grew 21.6 percent to 3.82 trillion yuan in the first half year, accounting for 19.6 percent of the total retail sales, up 1.4 percentage points from the first quarter.

Retail sales in rural areas rose 9.1 percent year on year, outpacing the 8.3 percent expansion of retail sales in urban areas in the first half year.

In terms of consumption types, the revenue of the catering industry rose 9.4 percent in the first six months year on year, while the retail sales of commodities climbed 8.3 percent year on year.

In June, retail sales expanded by 9.8 percent year on year to 3.39 trillion yuan, 1.2 percentage points higher than the previous month.