China's retail sales grew 10 percent year on year to 2.24 trillion yuan (366 billion U.S. dollars) in April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.
The growth rate was down from the 10.2 percent posted in March.
In the first four months, retail sales grew 10.4 percent. Online sales surged 40.3 percent during the same period.
Growth in rural areas outpaced that in cities.
Sales in rural areas rose 11.4 percent in April and 11.5 percent in the January-April period, in contrast to the 9.8 percent and 10.2 percent growth seen in urban areas.
April's marginal drop was mainly caused by soft demand for home products, according to NBS statistician Lin Tao.
Growth in sales of home appliances, furniture and decor slowed down by 6.7 percentage points, 3.9 percentage points and 2.5 percentage points respectively in April from the previous month, he said.
Weakness in the sector contributed to deceleration of around 0.5 percentage points in retail sales in general, he added.
