China's retail sales rose 17.9 percent year on year in the first two months to 2.51 trillion yuan (US$367.5 billion), fueled by Lunar New Year consumption and the nation's stimulus measures, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Thursday.

The figure was 2.7 percentage points higher than the same period last year, and was 2.4 percentage points higher than the figure for 2009.

Urban consumption totaled 2.07 trillion yuan, up 18.4 percent year on year, while rural residents spent 430.4 billion yuan, up 15.5 percent, according to the NBS.

The catering sector generated 280.6 million yuan, a rise of 17.3 percent from a year earlier. Commodities retail sales leaped 17.9 percent to 2.22 trillion yuan, the NBS said.

Spurred by a string of stimulus policies, consumption has made a larger contribution to economic growth, as the nation attempted to switch from an export-relied to a demand-driven economy.

Consumption contributed 4.6 percentage points, or 52.5 percent, to last year's 8.7 percent GDP growth. The figure was 0.2 percentage points higher than that in 2007, according to the NBS data released in February, but the NBS did not provide the 2008 figure.

The government has stepped up its efforts to prop up consumption since early 2009, including government subsidies and tax breaks for home appliances and cars, to offset the economic downturn brought by falling exports.

(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2010)