China's Retail sales of consumer goods rose 13.7 percent in July over the same month last year to 601.2 billion yuan (US$75.3 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday in its monthly report.

Retail sales rose 14.2 percent year to 408.2 billion yuan in urban areas in July, while that in counties, towns and villages grew 12.6 percent to 193.1 billion yuan compared with July last year.

Wholesale and retail sales reached 508.3 billion yuan, up 13.6 percent over July last year. Catering and hotel figures were up 16.7 percent to 78.2 billion yuan.

The report said food was up 15.1 percent, clothing up 18.2 percent and daily articles up 19.2 percent from July last year.

Meat, poultry and egg sales rose by 16.9 percent and grain and edible oils by 18.6 percent in July.

In the first seven months of 2006, retail sales of consumer goods grew 13.4 percent over the same period last year to 4.246 trillion yuan, said the report.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2006)