By area, retail sales in urban regions were 11,057.4 billion yuan, up 2.3% year on year, while rural retail sales reached 1,712.1 billion yuan, growing faster at 3.1%.

By type of consumption, retail sales of goods totaled 11,307.2 billion yuan, rising by 2.2%, while catering revenue came in at 1,462.3 billion yuan, increasing by 4.2%.

Sales of essential goods and some upgraded products grew strongly. Retail sales of grain, oil and food rose by 10.0%, clothes, shoes, hats and textiles by 9.3%, communication equipment by 20.8%, and gold, silver and jewelry by 12.6% among enterprises above the designated size.

In March, total retail sales increased by 1.7% year on year and edged up by 0.14% compared to the previous month.

In the first quarter, retail sales of services grew by 5.5% year on year, the same pace as last year. Areas such as communication and information services, tourism-related services, and cultural, sports and leisure services saw strong growth.

Online retail sales of goods and services reached 4,977.4 billion yuan in the first quarter, up 8.0% year on year. Within this, online sales of goods were 3,161.4 billion yuan, rising 7.5% and making up 24.8% of total retail sales, while online services sales totaled 1,816.0 billion yuan, growing by 8.8%.

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