BEIJING — Chinese consumers stepped up their spending in September, a sign of an economic recovery gathering strength amid the effective containment of the COVID-19 epidemic at home.

Retail sales of consumer goods climbed 3.3 percent year-on-year in September, with the growth further picking up after the major consumption gauge posted its first positive growth this year in August by rising 0.5 percent year-on-year, according to data released on Oct 19 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The indicator rose 0.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of the year, the first positive quarterly growth this year.

The value of auto sales increased 11.2 percent year-on-year in September, maintaining double-digit growth for three consecutive months. Wen Bin, a chief analyst at China Minsheng Bank, said auto sales have provided a major boost to consumer sales.

Consumer spending contributed 1.7 percentage points to Q3 economic growth, which expanded 4.9 percent year-on-year, NBS spokesperson Liu Aihua told a press conference. That compared with a 2.3-percent drag on growth in Q2.

In the first three quarters, retail sales of consumer goods went down 7.2 percent year-on-year to 27.33 trillion yuan (about $4.08 trillion), with the decline narrowing by 4.2 percentage points from the first half of the year.

Notably, online spending grew 9.7 percent for the January-September period, accelerating from the 7.3-percent rise registered in the first half. Online sales of physical goods, which account for 24.3 percent of the total retail sales, surged 15.3 percent from one year earlier.