China Retail Sales Up 23.3% in July

Beijing China's retail sales rose by 23.3% in July from a year ago to 862.9 billion yuan ($126 billion), the government said Wednesday.

In the first seven months of the year, retail sales climbed 21.7% to 5.97 trillion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

Beijing policy-makers have been working for years to increase private consumption by boosting incomes and discouraging saving.

The figures came one day after the government announced that inflation in July eased to 6.3% from June's 7.1% as a result of a slowdown in food-price rises.