Domestic retail sales kept the growing momentum in previous months and registered an increase of 23.2 percent in August, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.

The growth rate was 6.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year and 0.1 percentage points lower than the previous month. The figure totaled 876.8 billion yuan (US$128.9 billion).

(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2008)