BEIJING — China's retail sales of consumer goods reported robust growth in 2019 amid steady overall consumption market development.

Sales of consumer goods are expected to exceed 41.1 trillion yuan (about $5.89 trillion) in 2019, up 8 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed on Dec 30.

The revenue of the catering industry is expected to gain 9.4 percent year-on-year, while the proportion of service consumption is estimated to rise 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.

China's express delivery market is expected to cover more than 90 percent of the country's rural areas this year, and the growth rate of cross-border e-commerce retail imports is expected to exceed 30 percent, said the MOC.