China's retail sales of consumer goods grew 10.4 percent year on year to 26.32 trillion yuan (3.97 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months of 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.
The pace was unchanged compared to the same period last year, the NBS said in a statement.
In September, retail sales expanded by 10.3 percent year on year, up from 10.1 percent in August.
The NBS attributed the growth partly to booming online sales, which surged 34.2 percent year on year, 8.1 percentage points faster than the same period last year.
Online sales of physical goods rose 29.1 percent to 3.68 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, accounting for 14 percent of the country's total retail sales.
From January to September, retail sales in rural areas rose 12.1 percent, outpacing the 10.1-percent expansion for urban areas.
"Consumption demand has become a main engine of China's economic growth," NBS spokesperson Xing Zhihong told a press conference.
Booming retail sales are behind China's stabilizing economy, which grew 6.9 percent in the first three quarters this year.
China is trying to shift its economy toward a growth model driven more by consumer spending, innovation and services while weaning it off reliance on exports and investment.
In the first three quarters, the contribution of final consumption to GDP growth stood at 64.5 percent, up 2.8 percentage points from the same period last year, according to the NBS.
