BEIJING, June 24 -- China's postal industry witnessed stable growth in both business revenue and parcel volume in the first five months of this year, official data showed.

The sector raked in 596.39 billion yuan (about 83.07 billion U.S. dollars) in business revenue during the period, 12.2 percent higher compared to a year ago, according to the State Post Bureau. In May alone, the business revenue totaled 123.19 billion yuan, up by 12.2 percent.

Some 60.28 billion parcels were delivered in the January-May period, increasing 14.3 percent year on year. The figure was 13.48 billion last month, up by 16.5 percent.

The expansion of the postal industry was in part driven by robust online shopping and sent a positive signal that the country's consumption is steadily recovering. In the first five months, online goods sales increased 11.8 percent from a year earlier to 4.81 trillion yuan, accounting for a quarter of the country's total retail sales.