China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, rose 6.7 percent year on year to 7.44 trillion yuan (about 1.17 trillion U.S. dollars) during the first two months of 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

The growth rate was 5 percentage points higher than that in December last year, the bureau said.

Retail sales in urban areas reached 6.46 trillion yuan during the two-month period, up 6.7 percent year on year, while those in rural areas increased 7.1 percent year on year.

Retail sales of goods rose 6.5 percent from a year ago to 6.67 trillion yuan, while catering revenue hit 771.8 billion yuan, an increase of 8.9 percent year on year.

In the first two months, China's online retail sales continued to show robust expansion and reached 1.96 trillion yuan, up 10.2 percent year on year, the data showed.