BEIJING — China's consumption of gold and silver jewelry continued to expand in May amid the steady recovery of the domestic consumption market, official data showed.

Last month, the aggregate retail sales of gold and silver jewelry increased by 31.5 percent year-on-year to 26.2 billion yuan (about $4.07 billion), data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

The growth pace came following an 83.2-percent surge in March and a 48.3-percent rise in April, due to a low base in the same period last year.

In May, China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 12.4 percent year-on-year, and were 9.3 percent higher from the same month of 2019, the data showed.