China's retail sales grew 13.1 percent year on year in July, slightly down from 13.7 percent in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

After adjusting for inflation, the reading was 12.2 percent.

The slowdown was in line with market expectations and growth is expected to slow in the third quarter without stimulus policies, said Zhao Ping, an official from the Ministry of Commerce.

In the first seven months, retail sales rose 14.2 percent to 11.45 trillion yuan (1.82 trillion U.S. dollars). The figure was 11.3 percent after adjusting for inflation.

In July, sales in urban areas rose 13.1 percent to 1.42 trillion yuan, while those in rural regions grew 13.6 percent to 216 billion yuan.

China's economy cooled to 7.6 percent in the second quarter, the lowest reading since the third quarter of 2009 as a result of sluggish exports, a cooling domestic property market and a self-geared slowdown in fixed-asset investment.

Weak economic growth dampened desire for consumption in the short run, but from a long-term perspective, consumption will increase as China's urbanization accelerates, said Zhao Lin, an economist from UBS.

The country's consumer inflation eased to 1.8 percent, the lowest rate in two and a half years, in July, giving the government more leeway to loosen credit to spur the slowing economy.