China's retail sales, the key measure of consumer spending in the world's fourth largest economy, jumped 18.8 percent in November from a year earlier, government data showed Wednesday.
The figure released by the National Statistics Bureau compared with an 18.1 percent growth in October, while in the 11 months to November, retail sales rose 16.4 percent to 8.02 trillion yuan (1.08 trillion dollars).
Retails sales figures this year have jumped sharply in the third and fourth quarter, mainly due to soaring inflation, which in November hit a near 11-year high of 6.9 percent. Among the sectors that saw sharp rises in monthly sales, with the sharp increases in the total value sold linked to the higher prices - meat, poultry and eggs were up 45.3 percent, and autos were up 35 percent.