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).