The increase in China's retail sales volume exceeded 20 percent year on year in the last eight months and is still accelerating, enough to sustain economic growth above 9.5 percent for the rest of the year, a HSBC report said.

    According to the report "China Economic Spotlight" released on Tuesday, consumer spending has performed strongly despite the slowing economy, the disastrous earthquake and the cancellation of the May Day golden week.    Taking into account the retail price index, the real retail sales growth hit a decade record of 15.4 percent year on year (to about 100 billion U.S. dollars) in July from 14.8 percent in June, substantially higher than the monthly average of 12.4 percent in 2007.

    Both urban and rural areas showed strong retail sales growth in real terms over the same period last year, with rural retail up 14percent to 280 billion yuan and that of urban areas up 17 percent to 600 billion yuan.    Strong consumer spending is attributable to the rapidly increasing expenditure on accommodation and catering, up 26.5 percent year on year in July, and the robust growth of wholesale and retail trading, said the report.

Continued at Xinhua News