LONDON -- Chinese retail sales grow for the first time this year, and the rise in consumer spending is the latest indicator of wider economic recovery in the Asian country, a major British newspaper reported Tuesday.

"China's retail sales returned to growth for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, in the latest sign that consumer spending was catching up with the country's wider economic recovery," the Financial Times said.

"The recovery gained momentum after new cases of the virus slowed to a trickle and government infrastructure projects helped to support economic activity," the newspaper noted.

Oxford Economics, a consultancy, suggested that China's economic recovery was "on a reasonably firm footing now and should continue through Q4 (the fourth quarter) and into 2021, with solid investment growth, gradually recovering consumption momentum and resilient exports," it added.

China's retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of consumption growth, expanded for the first time this year, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

In August, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 3.36 trillion yuan ($492.08 billion), rising 0.5 percent year on year.

In the first eight months, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 23.8 trillion yuan ($3.5 trillion), down 8.6 percent year on year, narrowing by 1.3 percentage points compared with that in the first seven months.