Total Retail Sales of Consumer Goods Went Up by 3.3 percent in September 2020

In September, the total retail sales of consumer goods totaled 3,529.5 billion yuan, up 3.3 percent year on year (the actual growth was 2.4 percent after deducting the price factor, and the following are all nominal growth). Among them, the retail sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles reached 3,142.8 billion yuan, an increase of 2.4 percent.

From January to September, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 27,332.4 billion yuan, down 7.2 percent year on year. Among them, the retail sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles totaled 24,658.8 billion yuan, down 7.2 percent.

According to the location of business units, in September, the retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas reached 3,020 billion yuan, an increase of 3.2 percent over the same period of last year; the retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas reached 509.5 billion yuan, an increase of 4.0 percent. From January to September, the retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas totaled 23,684.3 billion yuan, a decrease of 7.3 percent over the same period of last year, while that of rural consumer goods was 3,648.1 billion yuan, a decrease of 6.7 percent.

According to consumption types, in September, the retail sales of goods reached 3,157.9 billion yuan, an increase of 4.1 percent over the same period of last year, and the catering income was 371.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.9 percent. From January to September, the retail sales of goods reached 24,809.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.1 percent; and the catering revenue was 2,522.6 billion yuan, a decrease of 23.9 percent.

According to the retail business type, the retail sales of supermarkets in the retail enterprises above the designated size increased by 2.9 percent year-on-year from January to September, while the department stores, professional stores and specialty stores decreased by 16.6, 9.2 and 6.8 percent respectively.

From January to September, the national online retail sales reached 8,006.5 billion yuan, an increase of 9.7 percent year-on-year, 0.2 percentage point higher than that from January to August. Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods reached 6,647.7 billion yuan, an increase of 15.3 percent, accounting for 24.3 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 35.7, 3.3 and 16.8 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 September 2019 was revised. The revised figures and figures in August 2020 are as follows: