Sales jumped 14.2 percent to 617.6 billion yuan, or $77.1 billion, after climbing 13.6 percent in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has cut taxes, raised minimum wages and pledged to improve health care and welfare to support consumption and make the economy less dependent on investment. Stronger consumer spending could give the central bank more leeway to raise lending rates again as it seeks to curb investment.

"This indicates that the central bank can afford to take more measures to tighten monetary policy, because consumption is now more providing more support to the economy," said Jun Ma, an economist at Deutsche Bank.

The central bank, while raising its benchmark lending rate by 0.27 percentage point to 5.85 percent on April 28 to cool lending for investment projects, kept the official deposit rate unchanged, to discourage savings.

Per-capita disposable incomes in towns and cities increased 10.8 percent in the first quarter, while rural incomes jumped 11.5 percent. China's economy grew 10.3 percent in the first quarter.

Adjusting for the impact of the Lunar New Year holidays, May's gain was the biggest since December 2004.

Spending on furniture surged 40.1 percent after climbing 15.7 percent in April. Sales of electronics increased 26.6 percent, up from April's 17.6 percent gain, and vehicle sales jumped 29.4 percent after rising 26.3 percent the month before.

Ikea, the world's largest home-furnishings retailer, plans to open two to three stores in China each year during the next 10 years, the company's chief executive, Anders Dahlvig told reporters earlier this month. The company already has three outlets there.

China is trying to reduce a record by stimulating consumer spending and imports rather than by allowing its currency to appreciate at a faster pace.

The yuan has climbed just 1.2 percent since July, when China revalued it by 2.1 percent and let it trade against a basket of currencies.

China had a record $13 billion trade surplus in May after exports jumped 25.1 percent, a government report said Monday.

Efforts by the government to curtail piracy may encourage more overseas companies to expand in the nation, bolstering consumer spending, economists said.

European luxury goods makers of brands including Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton signed an agreement last week with Beijing retailers to stop the sale of counterfeit bags and clothing in malls.

Concern that patents won't be protected makes some overseas companies reluctant to sell their most profitable products in China and raises costs for those that try, according to McKinsey.

A Beijing court on June 2 backed Pfizer's patent for the impotence drug Viagra, a ruling that lawyers said would encourage pharmaceutical companies to expand in China.

Rising health care costs and a lack of adequate social security has made consumers, especially in rural areas, cautious about spending. Retail sales in urban areas made up two-thirds of the total in May and rose 15 percent, outpacing a 12.6 percent gain in the countryside, today's report showed. Cities are home to about 40 percent of China's population.

China's savings rate has been at almost 40 percent of gross domestic product during the past two decades and stands at more than 45 percent now, the UBS economist Jonathan Anderson said in a June 6 note to clients. Average incomes in urban areas are about triple those in the countryside.