Beijing, Sep 13 (IANS): China's retail sales grew 10.8 percent year on year to 2.49 trillion yuan ($390.89 billion) in August, the official data showed on Sunday.

The growth rate picked up slightly from 10.5 percent in July, Xinhua news agency cited National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as saying.

A key reason for the month-on-month rise in retail sales was rising retail prices and the August retail sales growth rate is almost the same as in July if one deducts the price factor, said NBS statistician Lin Tao.

In the first eight months, retail sales grew 10.5 percent. Growth in rural areas continued to outpace that in cities.

Sales in rural areas rose 11.9 percent in August and 11.7 percent in the January-August period, in contrast to the 10.6 percent and 10.3 percent growth seen in urban areas.

Earnings for catering services in August grew 12.4 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than July.

Chinese consumers increasingly favoured online shopping. In the first eight months, online sales rose 36.5 percent year on year to 2.24 trillion yuan.