The sales of China's restaurant industry reached 60.6 billion yuan (7.3 billion US dollars) in August, with an year-on-year increase of 19.6 percent, according to figures released by Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Restaurant sales are as high as 456.1 billion yuan in the first eight months, up 23.4 percent year-on-year, official statistics show Thursday.

From January to August, the total volume of retail sales in China reached 3372.1 billion yuan, up 12.9 percent. This increase rate is 6.5 percent lower than the increase rate of restaurant sales in the same period of time.

China saw rapid growth in consumption in August, with retail sales rising to 426.3 billion yuan (51.4 billion US dollars), up 13.1 from a year earlier, according to a monthly report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Source: Xinhua