BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods in the first nine months hit 4,508.1 billion yuan (556.56 billion US dollars), up 13.0 percent year-on-year, or a growth of 12.1 percent in real terms, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)said here on Thursday

    Figures from the NBS show that in September alone, the figure came to 549.5 billion yuan, up 12.7 percent.

    The real growth was 2.4 percentage points higher than that of a year earlier, according to NBS.

    The retail sales rose 14.0 percent to 3,030.9 billion yuan in urban areas, and 11.0 percent to 1,477.2 billion yuan in regions at and below county level, reflecting a 13.4 percent and 9.4 percent growth in real terms respectively, or 1.3 and 4.2 percentage points higher than the growth of a year earlier.

    Of the sales by wholesale and retail business above designated size, communication equipments rose 20.1 percent, oil and oil products up 38.3 percent and automobiles up 13.1 percent, according to NBS. Enditem