BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods went up 4.5 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2025, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

The country's retail sales of consumer goods totaled 36.5877 trillion yuan (about 5.16 trillion U.S. dollars) during the period, data from the NBS showed.

The growth rate was 1.2 percentage points higher than that during the same period last year, said Yu Jianxun, an official with the NBS.

In September, retail sales rose 3 percent year on year.

As policy measures to boost service consumption took effect, pent-up demand was released, which translated into stronger market growth, Yu said.

In the first three quarters, retail sales in the service sector rose 5.2 percent year on year, outpacing the growth rate of goods retail sales by 0.6 percentage points.

From January to September, retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas rose 4.4 percent year on year, while retail sales in rural areas expanded 4.6 percent year on year.

Online retail sales remained a bright spot, climbing 9.8 percent year on year in the first nine months, the NBS data showed.

Supported by consumption-boosting policies this year, the supply of goods and services has improved, steadily unleashing demand and leading to an expanded and upgraded consumer market, according to Yu.

Yu also noted that there is still room to boost the consumption appetite of households and unlock their spending potential.

To foster high-quality development of the consumer market, efforts should focus on implementing consumption-boosting measures, stabilizing employment and incomes, creating diverse consumption scenarios, and expanding service consumption, Yu said. Enditem