NANJING -- East China's Jiangsu province registered 334.44 billion yuan ($47.95 billion) of retail sales of consumer goods in June, up 4.4 percent year on year, according to the provincial commerce department.

The economic powerhouse province's retail sales of consumer goods in the first half of this year totaled 1.69 trillion yuan, which contributed to 9.8 percent of the total retail sales of the whole country, up 0.9 percentage points year on year, said Sun Jin, deputy director of the department.

Jiangsu intensified its efforts to boost consumption and saw obvious recovery month on month. New forms of business, including livestream selling and social e-commerce, greatly stimulated consumption, Sun said.

The retail industry in Jiangsu has been steadily recovering. In June, sales of major retail enterprises reached 127.64 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 4.7 percent. Supermarkets and convenience stores that provide residents with daily necessities defied the epidemic to report robust sales growth, Sun said.

From January to June, major retail and wholesale enterprises in the province reported online retail sales of 83.48 billion yuan, up 31.7 percent year on year.

During the same period, the retail sales of major convenience stores, large supermarkets and shopping centers rose by 33 percent, 12.8 percent and 3.3 percent year on year, respectively.