July retail sales in China show mixed results across categories
China’s National Bureau of Statistics released the monthly retail sales report for July yesterday. The total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 2.7% to 3.7757 trillion RMB ($523.5 billion), with retail sales of goods also rising by 2.7% to 3.3354 trillion RMB ($460.6 billion). National consumer prices rose by 0.5% YoY. In terms of categories, sales of sports and entertainment goods surged by 10.7% to 10.5 billion RMB ($145 billion), while retail sales of clothing, footwear, and textiles fell by 5.2% to 936 billion RMB ($128 billion). Sales of cosmetics decreased by 6.1% to 24.5 billion RMB ($3.36 billion), and sales of gold, silver, and jewelry plummeted by 10.4% to 20 billion RMB ($276 billion).