BEIJING — China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, expanded for the first time this year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sept 15.

In August, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 3.36 trillion yuan ($492.08 billion), rising 0.5 percent year-on-year.

In the first eight months, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 23.8 trillion yuan, down 8.6 percent year-on-year, narrowing by 1.3 percentage points compared with that in the first seven months.

The sales of communication equipment and cosmetics expanded 25.1 percent and 19 percent in August, respectively.

Meanwhile, the country's online sales rose 9.5 percent year-on-year to reach 7.03 trillion yuan in the first eight months, widening by 0.5 percentage points from that in the January-July period.

The figures are part of a series of indicators released by the NBS, including industrial production and fixed-asset investment, which showed the economy on a recovery track amid effective epidemic control.