China Retail Sales YoY

China’s retail sales grew by 3.0% year-on-year in September 2025, slowing from a 3.4% gain in the previous month and marking the weakest expansion since August 2024. The slowdown was driven by significantly softer sales in household appliances and audio-visual equipment (3.3% vs 14.3% in August), gold, silver, and jewelry (9.7% vs 16.8%), sports and entertainment products (11.9% vs 16.9%), and cultural and office supplies (6.2% vs 14.2%). In contrast, sales increased at a faster pace for grain, oil, and food (6.3% vs 5.8%), clothing, shoes, hats, and textiles (4.7% vs 3.1%), cosmetics (8.6% vs 5.1%), communication equipment (16.2% vs 7.3%), and automobiles (1.6% vs 0.8%). Additionally, the decline in petroleum and related product sales eased slightly (-7.1% vs -8%). On a monthly basis, retail trade fell by 0.18% in September, reversing a revised 0.25% gain in August. Over the first nine months of 2025, retail activity expanded by 4.5% compared to the same period in the previous year.