China's retail sales record first expansion

China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, expanded for the first time this year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

In August, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 3.36 trillion yuan (about 492.08 billion U.S. dollars), rising 0.5 percent year on year.

In the first eight months, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 23.8 trillion yuan, down 8.6 percent year on year, narrowing by 1.3 percentage points compared with that in the first seven months.