BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, expanded 2.4 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2026, official data showed Thursday.

A customer purchases cooking oil at a supermarket in Congjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, April 10, 2026. (Photo: Xinhua)

The pace is 0.7 percentage points faster than the growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 12.77 trillion yuan (about 1.86 trillion U.S. dollars) in the January-March period.

In March alone, the retail sales of consumer goods rose 1.7 percent year on year, the data showed.