Hong Kong retail sales in July plunged by 11.4 percent as ongoing protests and the China-US trade war took their toll.
The fall was widely expected with several large retailers projecting double-digit declines based on their own internal monitoring during the month.
A government spokesman said the decline in retail sales reflected “weak local consumer sentiment and significant disruptions to inbound tourism and consumption-related activities arising from the recent local social incidents”.
He said the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) expected Hong Kong retail sales will likely stay weak in the near term, as escalated US-Mainland trade tensions and subdued economic conditions continue to dampen consumer sentiment.
“The situation may even deteriorate further if the social incidents involving violence do not come to a stop.”
July’s decrease followed a 6.7-per-cent decline in June when the current round of protests commenced. For the first seven months of the year, sales are down by 3.8 percent year on year.
After netting out the effects of price changes, July’s figure was even bleaker, down 13 percent compared with a decline of 7.6 percent in June and a year-to-date 4.4 percent.
Retail sales to visitors usually account for about 50 percent of the total market in Hong Kong, so the key category of watches, jewelry, and luxury goods – the largest category – plummeted by 24.4 percent in July.
Apparel sales fell by 13 percent, medicines, and cosmetics by 16.1 percent, and commodities in department stores by 10.4 percent.
Categories less reliant on visitors performed better: sales of food, alcoholic drinks, and tobacco were down by 2.3 percent, consumer goods, not classified elsewhere by 1.4 percent, and books, stationery, newspapers, and gifts by 6 percent.
Sales of electrical goods fell by 17.4 percent, of footwear and accessories by 10.1 percent and of furniture and fixtures by 8.7 percent.
The only category to post growth year on year was supermarket sales, which rose by a modest 1 percent.
