Retail sales of major categories of goods grew faster in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period of 2009, the Ministry of Information and Industry Technology said in a report Thursday.

Sales of home appliances rose 24.2 percent year-on-year, compared with a 6.6 percent decline in the same period of last year.

Sales of jewelry went up 36.1 percent year-on-year, and that of garments climbed 28.7 percent year-on-year. Both saw their growth more than 20 percentage points higher than the first quarter of 2009.

 
Sales of daily necessities grew 23.1 percent year-on-year, and the cosmetics sector saw its sales up 18.4 percent year-on-year.

The report said that the food, garment and home appliance sectors are the major contributors to the bounce of the retail business, and the first two sectors took up more than half of the total sales.

The ministry said in a separate report that garment sales at the 100 major retailers across the country went up 28.7 percent year-on-year. The growth rate was 20.5 percentage points higher than that of a year before, and had already surpassed the pre-crisis levels.

Meanwhile, the average price of garment products grew 12.4 percent from a year ago at the retailers, indicating an upward trend in garment consumption, said the report.