BEIJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, maintained stable growth in July, official data showed Tuesday.

The retail sales of consumer goods went up 2.5 percent year on year last month to nearly 3.68 trillion yuan (about 512.22 billion U.S. dollars), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In the January-July period, the figure increased 7.3 percent.

The consumer market continued to recover and service consumption grew rapidly, the NBS said in a statement.