China retail sales pick up

China's retail sales of consumer goods continued to pick up in October with the highest growth rate this year, official data showed on Wednesday.

In October, retail sales expanded 11 percent to 2.83 trillion yuan ($445 billion), 0.1 percent higher than growth in September, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The rise was mainly due to accelerated growth in car sales by major companies, which advanced 7.1 percent from a year ago, contributing 0.8 percent of the total sales rise in October, Xinhua quoted NBS statistician Lin Tao as saying.

In the January-October period, retail sales rose 10.6 percent year on year to 24.44 trillion yuan, 0.1 percent higher than in the first three quarters.

Online sales surged by 34.6 percent to 2.95 trillion yuan in the first 10 months, with the sales of virtual goods jumping 43.1 percent.

While retail sales registered stable growth, there are still significant deflationary pressures, said HSBC analyst Qu Hongbin.

China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 1.3 percent year on year in October, the NBS said on Tuesday.