Total Retail Sales of Consumer Goods Achieve Positive Growth in August 2020

In August, the total retail sales of consumer goods totaled 3,357.1 billion yuan, up 0.5 percent year on year, the first positive growth since this year. Among them, the retail sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles totaled 3,015.8 billion yuan, down 0.6 percent.

From January to August, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 23,802.9 billion yuan, and the retail sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles reached 21,513.9 billion yuan, a decrease of 8.6 percent year-on-year.

According to the location of business units, in August, the retail sales of urban consumer goods were 2,927.3 billion yuan, up 0.5 percent year-on-year, and 1.1 percent of decrease in July; the retail sales of rural consumer goods were 429.8 billion yuan, an increase of 0.7 percent, and a decrease of 1.3 percent in July. From January to August, the retail sales of consumer goods in urban reached 20,664.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.7 percent, and that of rural consumer goods was 3,138.6 billion yuan, a decrease of 8.3 percent.

According to consumption types, in August, the retail sales of goods reached 2,995.1 billion yuan, up 1.5 percent year-on-year, 1.3 percentage points higher than that in July; and the catering income was 361.9 billion yuan, down 7.0 percent, 4 percentage points lower than that in July. From January to August, the retail sales of goods reached 21,651.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.3 percent; and the catering revenue was 2,151 billion yuan, a decrease of 26.6 percent.

From January to August, the national online retail sales reached 7,032.6 billion yuan, an increase of 9.5 percent year-on-year, 0.5 percentage point higher than that in January to July. Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods reached 5,865.1 billion yuan, an increase of 15.8 percent, accounting for 24.6 percent of the total retail sales of social consumer goods; among the online retail sales of physical goods, the sales of food, clothing and consumer goods increased by 35.4, 1.1 and 18.3 percent respectively.

Annotations:

1. Revision Description

According to the results of the fourth national economic census, the total retail sales of consumer goods in 2019 are revised, and the monthly growth rate in 2020 is calculated according to the comparable caliber.

2. Explanatory Notes

Total Retail Sales of Consumer Goods: refers to the sales of physical commodity or the income of catering services sold or provided by enterprises (units) to individuals, social organizations for non-production and non-operation purposes.

Online Retail Sales: refers to the sales of goods and services got through public online trading platform (including self-built websites and third-party platform). Goods and services include physical goods and non-physical goods (such as virtual product, services). 

The total retail sales of consumer goods include online retail sales of physical goods, excludes online retail sales of non-physical goods.

3. Statistical Coverage

The corporate enterprises, industrial activity units or self-employed individuals which retail goods or provide catering services. Enterprises (units) above designated size refer to those wholesale enterprises (units) with an annual revenue from primary business of 20 million yuan and above, those retail enterprises (units) with an annual revenue from primary business of 5 million yuan and above, and those hotel and catering enterprises (units) with an annual revenue from primary business of 2 million yuan and above.

As the scope of wholesale and retail enterprises, accommodation and catering enterprises (units) above the designated size changes every year, the same period used to calculate the growth rate of retail sales per unit of consumer goods above the designated size is consistent with the statistical range of enterprises (units) in this period, and there is a caliber difference from the data released last year in order to ensure that the current year's data are comparable with the previous years. The main reasons are as follows: some enterprises (units) reach the designated size and are included in the scope of the investigation every year, at the same time, some enterprises (units) withdraw from the scope of the investigation because their scale is smaller than the designated size, and there are also the effects of newly opened enterprises, bankruptcy, note (revocation) enterprises (units).

4. Survey Methods

All enterprises (units) above designated size are surveyed, while the data of enterprises (units) below designated size are collected by sampling survey.

5. Month-on-Month Figure Revision

According to the auto-revision function of the seasonal adjustment model, the growth rate of the total retail sales of consumer goods since August 2019 was revised. The revised figures and figures in August 2020 are as follows: