BEIJING — China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 2.5 percent year-on-year in August this year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Sept 15.

The country's retail sales of consumer goods totaled around 3.44 trillion yuan (about $533 billion) in August, data from the NBS showed.

Retail sales in August were 3 percent higher from the level in August 2019. The two-year average growth was 1.5 percent.

In the January-August period, retail sales gained 18.1 percent year-on-year and were up 8 percent from the same period in 2019, according to the NBS.

In the first eight months, the catering industry saw a year-on-year increase of 34.4 percent in revenue, as the hardest-hit sector continued to recover from COVID-19 disruptions.

Online consumption remained a bright spot, with online retail sales rising 19.7 percent year-on-year to reach about 8.12 trillion yuan in the Jan-Aug period.