China's nominal retail sales of consumer goods reached 400.2 billion yuan (48.8 billion US dollars)in April, up 13.2 percent year-on-year, the National Statistics Bureau (NSB) said Friday.

The retail sales of consumer goods represented a 10.3 percent rise in real terms after adjustment for price changes, said the bureau.

The bureau attributed the fast growth in its April report to the low basis for April of 2003, when retail sales were affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and rising prices last month.

Citing the SARS impact on retail sales, the bureau said catering business on the Chinese mainland rose only 2.1 percent inApril of last year over the same period of 2002.

But the business of the catering sector reported 28.3 percent increase last month year-on-year.

The bureau said wholesale petroleum and petroleum-related products rose 50.8 percent in April due to drastic sales of auto vehicles and rising oil price. The growth rate of auto vehicle sales stood at 49.1 percent.

China's total retail sales of consumer goods during the first four months of this year stood at 1.6832 trillion yuan (205.2 billion US dollars), up 11.3 percent year-on-year, or 9.4 percent after adjustment for price changes.