BEIJING — China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, rose 6.7 percent year-on-year to 7.44 trillion yuan (about $1.17 trillion) during the first two months of 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics said on March 15.

The growth rate was 5 percentage points higher than that in December last year, the bureau said.

Retail sales in urban areas reached 6.46 trillion yuan during the two-month period, up 6.7 percent year-on-year, while those in rural areas increased 7.1 percent year-on-year.

Retail sales of goods rose 6.5 percent from a year ago to 6.67 trillion yuan, while catering revenue hit 771.8 billion yuan, an increase of 8.9 percent year-on-year.

In the first two months, China's online retail sales continued to show robust expansion and reached 1.96 trillion yuan, up 10.2 percent year-on-year, the data showed.