Clothing accessories & wearing apparel retail sales rise in Feb

01 Apr '08

3 min read

The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released the latest figures on retail sales April 1.

The value of total retail sales in February 2008, provisionally estimated at $22.8 billion, increased by 9.5% over a year earlier. After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales increased by 4.5% in February 2008 over a year earlier.

The revised estimate of the value of total retail sales in January 2008, at $25.7 billion, increased by 23.2% over January 2007, while the volume of total retail sales increased by 17.6%.

In interpreting these figures, it should be noted that retail sales tend to show greater volatility in the first two months of a year due to the timing of the Lunar New Year. The local consumer spending normally attains a seasonal high immediately before the Festival. As the Lunar New Year fell on February 7 this year but on February 18 last year, it is more appropriate to analyse the retail sales figures for January and February taken together in making year-on-year comparison.

Taking the first two months of 2008 together, total retail sales increased by 16.4% in value or 11.1% in volume over the same period a year earlier.

Analysed by type of retail outlet and comparing the combined total for January and February 2008 with a year earlier. This was followed by sales of footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (+20.2%); wearing apparel (+17.2%); commodities in department stores (+14.1%); miscellaneous consumer goods (+13.7%); miscellaneous consumer durable goods (+7.7%); furniture and fixtures (+7.3%); commodities in supermarkets (+5.8%); and jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts (+4.7%).

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