China's retail sales of consumer goods totaled RMB 2.94 trillion in the first quarter of 2009, up 15% year-on-year, according to statistics released by National Bureau of Statistics on April 16. The annual growth rate was 3.6 percentage points higher than the year-ago period. Retail sales in cities reached RMB 1.98 trillion, up 14.1% year-on-year, while retail sales in counties and lower jurisdictions totaled RMB 956.4 billion, up 17% from the year-ago period.