Hong Kong retail sales down 0.1% y/y by value in May at HK$39.0bn

It's much better compared with April.

Hong Kong retail sales for May came in at HK$39.0bn, down 0.1% y/y by value.

According to a research note from Barclays, the result was better than that for April, which was down 2.1% y/y.

The retail sales volume for May was up 4.6% y/y, better than that for April at up 2.5% y/y. All discretionary segments saw improvement in May compared with the trends for April with the jump in department store sales the most notable.

Here's more from Barclays:

We believe that the the data for May improved from April as the negative impact from the protests in March against parallel importers gradually subsided and as more attractive hotel rates potentially attracted more visitors.

Although the data for May were encouraging, we continue to expect slow long-term growth trends for Hong Kong over the next few years as 1) we expect higher spending visitors to continue to shift to other travel destinations, particularly destinations with depreciated currencies, and 2) we believe Hong Kong’s product pricing advantage could also diminish if the USD is strong and if China at some point removes more import tariffs or consumption taxes for more goods in China.

Sales for major categories for May:

Department stores sales were up 7.6% y/y in May: This was better than the 3.3% y/y decline in April.

Jewellery and watches saw a narrowed decline of 14.9% y/y in May: This was better than the 19.5% decline in April.

Clothing and footwear sales saw a 2.8% y/y decline in May: This was a narrower decline than the 4.9% y/y decline in April.

Medicines and cosmetics sales declined by 1.9% y/y in May: This was a narrower decline than the 3.0% y/y decline in April.

Food, alcohol and tobacco; and consumer durables sales saw slower growth: Sales for food alcohol and tobacco saw 1.9% y/y growth in May, slightly slower than the 4.3% y/y growth in April. Consumer durables sales growth grew at 16.9% y/y in May, slower than the growth of 23.8% y/y in April.