BEIJING -- China's retail sales grew 12 percent year on year to 6.21 trillion yuan ($1.01 trillion) in the first quarter of 2014, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.

In March, retail sales gained 12.2 percent from the same period last year to 1.98 trillion yuan and deducting inflation, the actual growth rate was 10.8 percent, said the NBS.

Retail sales growth in rural areas outpaced that in urban China.

Sales in rural areas rose 12.8 percent in the first quarter from the same period last year. Retail sales in urban areas climbed 11.8 percent in the same period.

Spending on consumption against the country's gross domestic product was 64.9 percent in the first quarter, up 1.1 percentage points from the same period last year.

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