HK retail sales up 6.2%

08 Aug '05

2 min read

The provisional estimate of the total retail sales value in June was $16.6 billion, up 6.2 percent on the same month last year, the Census & Statistics Department says.

After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the overall retail sales volume rose 5.2 percent.

The department said improvement in employment income, vibrant inbound tourism, and a generally positive economic outlook, should continue to render support to retail sales in the coming months.

Increases were recorded in nearly all major types of outlets. Sales of electrical goods and photographic equipment raised most at 10.7 percent in volume.

This was followed by apparel (by 8.6 percent), miscellaneous consumer goods (8.3 percent), motor vehicles and parts (5.2 percent), miscellaneous consumer durable goods (5 percent), commodities in supermarkets (4.8 percent), footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (4.5 percent), commodities in department stores (4.4 percent), furniture and fixtures (4.3 percent), jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts (0.8 percent). But fuel sales fell 5.8 percent.

The revised estimate of the total retail sales value was $17.6 billion, up 7.1 percent over May, while the total retail sales volume rose 6.4 percent.

For the first half of 2005, total retail sales rose 7.9 percent in value or 7 percent in volume over the same period a year earlier.

Government of Hong Kong