China's catering sector reported robust growth in November amid steady overall consumption market development.

The catering sector raked in 496.4 billion yuan (about 70.82 billion U.S. dollars) in November, up 9.7 percent year on year, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed Thursday.

The growth pace was 1.1 percentage points higher than that of November 2018.

The country's major retail firms tracked by the MOC saw their November sales up 2.3 percent year on year, picking up from 2 percent in October.

Online sales posted fast expansion, and daily necessities and cosmetics reported strong sales, MOC data showed.