China's nominal retail sales grew 12.7 percent year on year to 11.08 trillion yuan (1.8 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2013, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Monday.

The growth rate picked up by 0.3 percentage point from the first quarter, according to the NBS data.

In June alone, retails sales totaled 1.88 trillion yuan, up 13.3 percent year on year, marking the fastest growth since the start of the year.

Analyzed by breakdown, business revenues in the catering sector rose 8.7 percent from a year ago to 1.18 trillion yuan while merchandise retail sales stood at 9.9 trillion yuan, up 13.2 percent.

Retails sales in rural areas reached 1.5 trillion yuan in the first six months, up 14.3 percent, while sales in the urban regions hit 9.58 trillion yuan, up 12.5 percent.

The accelerating retail sales were boosted by steady growth in residents' income, according to the NBS.

In the first half, urban residents' per capita disposable income expanded 9.1 percent to reach 13,649 yuan, while the per capita cash income for rural residents jumped 11.9 percent to 4,817 yuan.

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