Tourists pack the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade, where the Avenue of Stars is located, in Hong Kong on May 1, 2023. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)
Hong Kong retail sales jumped 19.6 percent in June from the same month in 2022, with the increase coming from improved consumption sentiment and the continued recovery of inbound tourism, according to official figures released on Tuesday.
The provisional estimate of the value of total retail sales in June was HK$33.1 billion ($4.25 billion), the Census and Statistics Department said. The growth was an increase from May, which saw an 18.5 percent year-on-year increase by the revised estimate.
A government spokesperson attributed the business improvement of the sector in June to the recovery of inbound tourism and positive consumption sentiment
A government spokesperson attributed the business improvement of the sector in June to the recovery of inbound tourism and positive consumption sentiment.
“The outlook for retail sales remained favorable,” the spokesperson said.
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“While visitor arrivals should increase further in the coming months, improved labor market conditions and the government’s various measures to boost the momentum of the economic recovery, such as the disbursement of consumption vouchers, should render support to local consumption demand,” he added.
Online sales accounted for 6.7 percent of total retail sales in June, with a provisionally estimated value at HK$2.2 billion, representing a 3.3 percent decline from a year ago. For the first six months of 2023, online sales dropped 6.2 percent compared with the same period of 2022.
Bond Law, executive director of the Hong Kong Retail Management Association, said the growth of retail sales in the first half of the year can be partially attributed to the relatively low 2022 figures, the result of the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic at the time. It may take a year or more for the sector to recover to pre-pandemic levels, with the city’s economy lacking an impetus for growth, he said.
The provisional estimate of retail sales in the first six months recorded a 20.7 percent increase from the same period of 2022.
According to the association, the value of retail sales in the first half is about 20 percent lower than the same period in 2018, which indicates that the retail industry has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
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The sector is forecast to see a low double-digit percentage increase in total sales for 2023 as a whole from a year earlier, but there is still a gap compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2018, it said.
Sales of jewelry, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts led the growth in June, surging 64.3 percent year-on-year, followed by medicines and cosmetics, and wearing apparel, which rose 49.4 percent and 34.2 percent respectively.
Commodities in supermarkets fell by 3.5 percent on a yearly basis, while fuels, and furniture and fixtures dropped 19.1 percent and 6.4 percent respectively.
According to an HKRMA survey covering 3,700 companies and more than 50,000 workers in the retail sector, the industry is expected to see favorable growth in July, as it is the first summer vacation after Hong Kong reopened its border to the rest of the world and the second installment of e-vouchers was distributed on July 16.
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Meanwhile, about 70 percent of surveyed firms believe that the issue of manpower shortage has not been improved significantly, and they call for efforts of the government to strengthen the mobility of non-local workers within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to offer better-quality services to consumers.
