Chinese retail sales jumped 18.1 percent in October from a year earlier, the fastest pace on record, propelled by rising incomes, accelerating inflation and windfall gains from the surging stock market.

A spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, which released the data, said the increase was the largest since the government started issuing monthly sales data in 1999.

"This is another sign that the Chinese growth engine continues to hum along and it offers reassurance that China will remain a driver for global growth and compensate for a slowing in the U.S.," said David Cohen, an economist at Action Economics in Singapore.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 17.2 percent rise. .........

Stock prices have doubled this year, while figures released earlier on Wednesday showed annual property price inflation in 70 major cities quickened to 9.5 percent in October from 8.9 percent in September. ................

Retail sales in urban areas rose 18.6 percent last month with sales in the countryside, home to 56 percent of China's 1.3 billion people, up 17.1 percent. .......................