China Retail Sales YoY

China's retail trade growth eased to 1.7 percent year-on-year in December 2021 from 3.9 percent in the prior month, missing market expectations of 3.7 percent. This was the lowest figure since August 2020, as consumption weakened due to sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks. Sales rose at slower rates for cosmetics (2.5% vs 8.2% in November), office supplies (7.4% vs 18.1%), oil products (15.5% vs 25.9%), and building materials (7.5% vs 14.1%). At the same time, there were declines in sales of garments (-2.3% vs -0.5%), jewelry (-0.2% vs 5.7%), home appliances (-6.0% vs 6.6%), furniture (-3.1% vs 6.1%), and automobiles (-7.4% vs -9.0%). By contrast, sales growth picked up for personal care (18.8% vs 8.6%) on the back of a further rise in sales of telecoms (0.3% vs 0.3%). For the whole year, retail sales rose 12.5 percent, a sharp rebound from a 3.9 percent drop in 2020, boosted by sales of consumer goods excluding automobiles and online sales.