BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Tuesday that home appliance sales under the country's rural subsidy program surged 72.6 percent year-on-year to 18.28 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) in May.

In the first five months, home appliance sales in China's countryside rose 4.4 percent from a year earlier to reach 79.88 billion yuan, the MOC said in a statement posted on its website.

The volume of appliances sold in the period dropped 5.7 percent to 30.11 million units, according to the MOC.

As of the end of May, China had subsidized 248 million units of home appliances valued at 585.8 billion yuan since the subsidy program began, according to MOC data.

Initiated in 2009 to stimulate rural consumption and buoy the nation's economic growth amid the global economic downturn, the subsidy program will continue till January 2013.

Under the program, farmers can receive subsidies equal to 13 percent of the price of the home appliances they buy.