Luggish Performance Of Inbound Tourism In Drag - Dec 01, 2008

The value of total retail sales of Hong Kong increased by 0.3% in October 2008 over a year earlier. The retail sales weakened considerably further in October, as the adverse impacts of the global financial tsunami on consumer spending had increasingly set in. The sluggish performance of inbound tourism in that month also posed a drag.The value of total retail sales in October 2008, provisionally estimated at $20.8 billion, increased by 0.3% over a year earlier.

After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales decreased by 4.3% in October 2008 over a year earlier. However the revised estimate of the value of total retail sales in September 2008, at $20.9 billion, increased by 7.0% over September 2007, while the volume of total retail sales increased by 1.9%. Taking the first ten months of 2008 together, total retail sales increased by 12.7% in value or 6.4% in volume over the same period a year earlier.

Analyzed by broad type of retail outlet and comparing October 2008 with October 2007, the volume of sales of electrical goods and photographic equipment increased the most, by 6.0%. This was followed by sales of fuels (+5.5% in volume); furniture and fixtures (+4.0%) and miscellaneous consumer durable goods (+0.9%). On the other hand, the volume of sales of motor vehicles and parts decreased the most, by 23.9% in October 2008 compared with a year earlier.

This was followed by sales of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts (-10.4% in volume); footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (-8.7%); commodities in department stores (-5.9%); miscellaneous consumer goods (-4.3%); wearing apparel (-4.2%); commodities in supermarkets (-2.5%); and food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (-2.1%).Based on the seasonally adjusted series, the volume of total retail sales in the three months ending October 2008 decreased by 1.4% compared with the preceding three-month period.