China retail sales up 12% in first eleven months

BEIJING - China's retail sales in November grew 11.7 percent year on year to 2.35 trillion yuan ($384 billion), slightly up from October's growth of 11.5 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.

The country's retail sales rose 12 percent year on year to 23.66 trillion yuan ($3.87 trillion) in the first 11 months.

"Adjusted for inflation, real year on year retail sales growth edged up compared with October, suggesting a rising trend of consumption amid weak economic growth," China International Capital Corp, a leading investment bank, said in a report on Friday.

Retail sales growth in rural areas outpaced that in urban China. In the January to November period, sales in rural regions rose 12.9 percent from a year ago to 3.24 trillion yuan, while sales in urban areas climbed 11.8 percent to 20.42 trillion yuan.

China's online retail sales continued to accelerate, soaring 55.9 percent year on year to 385.8 billion yuan in the January-November period, based on the survey results of retail catering enterprises with large revenues.

The data came after China's leaders and senior officials concluded the three-day Central Economic Work Conference on Thursday, a crucial meeting aiming to set the tone for economic policies in 2015.

China will continue targeted and structured control policies to maintain medium- and high-speed growth for the economy. It will actively adapt to the economic New Normal of slower speed but higher quality, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

Dragged down by a housing slowdown, softening domestic demand and unsteady export, China's growth slid to a low not seen since the 2008/2009 global financial crisis in the third quarter.

China's economy expanded 7.3 percent in the third quarter, slightly lower than the first two quarters, but remained in the "reasonable" range set by authorities.