BEIJING, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Ten Chinese provinces outpaced the national retail sales growth in the first quarter of this year, official data showed.
Anhui, Jiangxi and Yunnan provinces topped the provincial retail sales chart by growing at 11.1 percent in Q1, faster than the national average of 8.3 percent in nominal terms.
Other above-average performers include Fujian, Hubei, Henan, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhejiang and Hebei provinces.
Tianjin reported the lowest retail sales growth by falling 2.6 percent year on year, mainly dragged down by weak consumption of automobiles, food and petroleum and related products.
Retail sales of Beijing and Shanghai grew 3.8 percent and 6.3 percent year on year respectively.
Analysts attributed the slow growth to the fact that retail sales do not include services consumption, which makes up a bigger portion of consumption in first-tier regions than others.
