Total Retail Sales of Consumer Goods Went Up by 4.3 percent in October 2020

In October, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 3,857.6 billion yuan, up 4.3 percent year-on-year, 1.0 percentage point faster than that of the previous month. Among them, the retail sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles reached 3,486.8 billion yuan, an increase of 3.6 percent.

From January to October, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 31,190.1 billion yuan, down 5.9 percent year on year. Among them, the retail sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles totaled 28,142.8 billion yuan, down 6.0 percent.

According to the location of business units, in October, the retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas reached 3,349.8 billion yuan, an increase of 4.2 percent over the same period last year; the retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas reached 507.8 billion yuan, an increase of 5.1 percent. From January to October, the retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas totaled 27,034.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.0 percent; that of rural consumer goods was 4,155.9 billion yuan, a decrease of 5.4 percent.

According to consumption types, in October, retail sales of goods reached 3,420.4 billion yuan, an increase of 4.8 percent over the same period last year; catering revenue was 437.2 billion yuan, an increase of 0.8 percent, and a decrease of 2.9 percent in September. From January to October, the retail sales of commodities reached 28,230.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.0 percent, and the catering revenue was 2,959.8 billion yuan, a decrease of 21.0 percent.

From January to October, the national online retail sales reached 9,127.5 billion yuan, an increase of 10.9 percent year-on-year, 1.2 percentage points higher than that of January to September. Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods reached 7,561.9 billion yuan, an increase of 16.0 percent, accounting for 24.2 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 34.3, 5.6 and 17.4 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 October 2019 was revised. The revised figures and figures in October 2020 are as follows: