BEIJING — China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, rose 0.85 percent month-on-month in July, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Aug 14.

The figure registered a mild rise from 0.83 percent in June, maintaining a six-month streak of expansion after a contraction of 10.91 percent in January.

In July, retail sales of consumer goods reached 3.22 trillion yuan (about $463.99 billion), down 1.1 percent year-on-year, narrowing by 0.7 percentage points from June.

In the first seven months, China's retail sales of consumer goods went down 9.9 percent year-on-year to reach 20.45 trillion yuan.

Retail sales of commodities totaled 2.89 trillion yuan in July, up 0.2 percent year-on-year, rebounding from the 0.2-percent drop in June.

Revenues of the catering sector, one of the worst-hit industries by COVID-19, fell 11 percent year-on-year in July, narrowing by 4.2 percentage points from June, said the NBS.

Meanwhile, online sales continued to be active as consumers turned to online services when staying indoors, with an increase of 9 percent year-on-year in the first seven months, quickening by 1.7 percentage points from the first half of the year.

As the COVID-19 epidemic gets effectively contained in China, the country has been introducing a string of measures to revive consumer confidence as part of broader efforts to shore up the economy.

In order to further boost domestic consumption, Commerce Minister Zhong Shan has called for efforts to upgrade the consumption level among urban residents, expand the coverage of e-commerce in rural areas and strengthen the consumption of services such as catering and housekeeping.