China's retail sales rise 5% in H1 2025, led by online growth

Such sales in urban areas reached 21,305 billion yuan (~$2970.17 billion) during the period—up by 5 per cent YoY, and stood at 3,240.9 billion yuan (~$451.82 billion) in rural areas—up by 4.9 per cent YoY, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Online retail sales reached 7,429.5 billion yuan (~$1035.76 billion) in H1 2025—up by 8.5 per cent YoY. Specifically, such sales of physical goods were worth 6,119.1 billion yuan—up by 6 per cent YoY, accounting for 24.9 per cent of the total retail sales of consumer goods.

In June, the total retail sales of consumer goods went up by 4.8 per cent YoY, or down by 0.16 per cent month on month (MoM).

The total value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size grew by 6.4 per cent YoY in H1 2025. The value added of manufacturing increased by 7 per cent YoY during the period.

In June, the value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size went up by 6.8 per cent YoY, or up by 0.5 per cent MoM.

In the same month, the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index stood at 49.7 per cent—0.2 pp higher MoM.

The total value of imports and exports of goods was 21,787.6 billion yuan in H1 2025—an increase of 2.9 per cent YoY. The total value of exports was 13,000.0 billion yuan—up by 7.2 per cent YoY, while the total value of imports was 8,787.5 billion yuan—down by 2.7 per cent YoY, an NBS release said.

The imports and exports by private enterprises increased by 7.3 per cent, accounting for 57.3 per cent of the total value of imports and exports, 2.3 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year. The imports and exports with the Belt and Road partner countries grew by 4.7 per cent.

In June, the total value of imports and exports was 3,852.7 billion yuan—up by 5.2 per cent YoY. The value of exports in the month was 2,339.4 billion yuan—up by 7.2 per cent YoY, while that of imports was 1,513.4 billion yuan—up by 2.3 per cent YoY.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)