Retail sales in China increased 10.4% year over year to 2.961 trillion Chinese yuan in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In the country's rural areas, retail sales expanded 11.7% year over year during the month to 413.6 billion yuan, outpacing the 10.2% growth rate in urban areas, which recorded retail sales of 2.547 trillion yuan.

Restaurants posted total sales of 320.4 billion yuan, up 11.1% year over year.

Combining the first seven months of the year, retail sales across the country jumped 10.4% year over year to 20.198 trillion yuan.

During that period, online retail sales grew 33.7% to 3.662 trillion yuan. Among those, online sales of physical goods increased 28.9% to 2.782 trillion yuan during the seven months, accounting for 13.8% of total retail sales in China.

As of Aug. 11, US$1 was equivalent to 6.67 Chinese yuan.