China's retail sales of goods, services maintain steady expansion in first five months

BEIJING -- China's total retail sales of goods and services, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, increased by 2.8 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2026, official data showed on Tuesday.

This is the first time that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has released this data as part of its monthly data package.

"As China's development stage evolves and consumption scenarios become increasingly diverse, demand for services is being unleashed at a faster pace and has become an important driver of consumption growth, making retail sales of services an important indicator for observing consumption trends," NBS Spokesperson Fu Linghui told the press.

Retail sales of services increased by 5.4 percent in the January-May period from a year earlier, while that of goods rose 1.2 percent, the NBS data revealed.

In the first five months, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 20.6 trillion yuan ($3.02 trillion), up by 1.4 percent year-on-year, the data showed. In May alone, total retail sales of consumer goods fell 0.6 percent from a year earlier.

Fu attributed the May decline mainly to a high comparison base a year earlier as well as the impact of hot and rainy weather in some regions, which affected offline consumption.

However, taking both goods and services sales into account, the consumer market remained stable and the trend toward consumption upgrading was unchanged, he said.

In terms of service consumption, tourism-related spending maintained strong momentum, Fu noted. Spending on cultural and sporting events also continued to gain traction, with retail sales of cultural, sports and recreational services rising by more than 10 percent year-on-year in January-May.

Fu said new patterns of consumption are continuing to unlock growth potential, with online, digital and green consumption emerging as fresh growth drivers. From January to May, the online retail sales of goods and services rose by 5.9 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, retail sales of communication and information services rose by over 10 percent in these five months, Fu said, while also noting that the retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles has exceeded 60 percent for two consecutive months.

In rural areas, retail sales of consumer goods rose 2.6 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2026, 1.4 percentage points faster than in urban areas.

"With continued improvements in rural internet infrastructure and logistics networks, the outlook for rural consumption remains promising," Fu explained.