Alibaba on Wednesday outlined expectations to increase annual revenues by a third this year, to Rmb500bn ($72.6bn), as the sprawling Chinese tech company unveiled stronger than expected revenue growth in the last three months of its financial year.

Sales increased 51 per cent year-on-year in the quarter to the end of March, to Rmb93.5bn. Revenues for the full fiscal year were Rmb376.84bn, up 39 per cent when stripping out the boost from newly acquired businesses, including food delivery group ele.me.

The numbers from Alibaba, which derives 83 per cent of its revenues from domestic ecommerce, suggested China’s shoppers remained in fine fettle at the beginning of the current calendar year. But the results were in sharp contrast to official statistics for growth in nationwide retail sales for April, also released on Wednesday. The figures showed growth in retail sales decelerated to just 7.2 per cent in the month, the slowest pace in 16 years.