China's home appliance sales, under the country's rural subsidy program, surged 39.4 percent year on year to 17.54 billion yuan ($2.78 billion) in September, the Ministry of Commerce said on October 17.

In the first nine months, subsidized home appliance sales in China's countryside rose 21.6 percent from a year earlier to 153.86 billion yuan ($25.08 billion).

As of the end of September, China had subsidized 275 million home appliance units valued at 659.76 billion yuan ($105.5 billion) since the subsidy program began in 2009.

The program, which will continue until January 2013, is part of the government's efforts to stimulate rural consumption and buoy the nation's economic growth amid the global economic downturn.

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