China's retail sales of consumer goods in April rose 22.0 percent year on year to 814.2 billion yuan (116 billion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) said on Tuesday.

That brings China's retail sales of consumer goods in the first four months of this year to 3.37 trillion yuan, up 21.0 percent over the same period last year. The growth rate was 20.6 percent in the first quarter year on year.

Retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas were up 22.9 percent to 555.9 billion yuan, while the retail sales of consumer goods at county level or below totaled 258.3 billion yuan, up 20.1percent over the same period last year.

The retail sales of food and cooking oils surged 36.3 percent year on year, followed by meat and eggs, which represented an increase of 30.8 percent year on year.