Retail sales slumped towards end of 2014

It's the market's coldest winter since 2003.

Latest statistics from The Census and Statistics Department show that the weaker-than-expected Christmas
period resulted to a 3.9% year-on-year decline in retail sales by value in December 2014.

According to a research note from Savills, for 2014 as a whole, the total sales value stood at HK$493.3 billion, down by 0.2% over 2013.

The research note said this is the first decline since the SARS outbreak in 2003, and was mainly due to lower sales of luxury items including jewellery and watches which dropped by nearly 14% over the year.

Here's more from Savills:

Despite the continued growth in Mainland visitor arrivals in Q4/2014, the shifting of the visitor profile, from overnight to same-day, resulted in lower per capita sales and a slowing of the visitor spending driven retail categories, including jewellery, watches and department store items.

"After a long bull run, street shop rents are fi nally softening while rents in prime malls continue their upward trajectory." Simon Smith, Savills Research.