The consumer goods market in Yangquan city in Shanxi province maintained stable growth in the first three quarters of the year, with total retail sales hitting 27.11 billion yuan ($3.87 billion), a year-on-year increase of 7.2 percent.

From the perspective of consumer demand,  commodities dominated retail sales, accounting for 87.9 percent of the total. During the period, the city's commodity retail sales amounted to 23.83 billion yuan, up 6.6 percent year on year. 

The services sector also developed steadily. The city's catering revenue came in at 3.24 billion yuan, an increase of 12.2 percent over the same period last year. Tourism revenue in the first three quarters shot up, reaching 33.59 billion yuan, for a year-on-year increase of 18.5 percent. 

The steady growth of demand is inseparable from the increasing incomes of residents, analysts said. 

In the first three quarters, per capita disposable income of the city's urban residents hit 24,932 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.7 percent, while that of rural residents reached 10,736 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.2 percent. 

With the growth of residents' incomes -- and the extension of online spending to rural markets and the improvement of the rural market environment -- the consumption potential of the rural market continued to be unleashed, analysts said. 

From January to September, total retail sales of rural consumer goods was 2.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 7.4 percent and the growth rate was 0.2 percentage points faster than that of the urban area.