Consumption Slided, Clothes Sales Kept Stable

The gross sales of social consumer goods reached 1225.3 billion yuan in July, up 17.9% year over year, but 0.4 percent points down from June. For the first seven months, the gross sales of social consumer goods reached 8492.2 billion yuan, up 18.2%, the same as first half. By the category of regions, the urban area sales were 1065.5 billion yuan in this month, up 18.2%; rural area as 159.8 billion yuan, up 16.1%.

The sales of textile, clothes, shoes and caps were 38.8 billion yuan in July, up 24.4% year over year, but 2.2 percentage points down from last month. For the first seven months, the gross sales of textile, clothes, shoes and caps reached 314.1 billion yuan, up 23.8% on yearly basis, the same as first half.