China's retail sales, the main gauge of consumer spending in the world's fastest-growing economy, rose 18.5 percent year on year to 1.15 trillion yuan (168.52 billion U.S. dollars) in April, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The figure was 3.7 percentage points higher than the same period last year and 0.5 percentage points higher than that in March, said NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun.

Urban consumption hit 998 billion yuan, up 18.9 percent year on year in April, while rural residents spent 153 billion yuan, up 16 percent.

The catering sector generated sales of 126.5 billion yuan, a rise of 17 percent from a year earlier while commodities retail sales increased 18.7 percent to 1.02 trillion yuan, the NBS said.

Sales of cars, furniture as well as home appliances and AV equipment jumped 36.9 percent, 35.1 percent and 34.3 percent respectively from a year earlier in April, partly boosted by government measures.

The country's retail sales jumped 18.1 percent year on year to 4.8 trillion yuan in the first four months of this year.

The growth followed a 15-percent rise for the same period last year, and a 17.9-percent year-on-year rise for the first quarter of this year.

The government rolled out a series of incentive measures, including subsidies and tax breaks for home appliances and cars in early 2009 -- at the height of the financial crisis when external demand remained weak.

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