HK retail sales down 2.9% YoY in October

This follows a 6.9% decline last month.

Hong Kong's total retail sales value in October 2024 fell by 2.9% year-on-year (YoY) to $32.9b.

This follows a 6.9% decline in September. For the first 10 months of 2024, retail sales dropped 7.1% compared to the same period in 2023. Online sales in October rose by 8.4% to $4b, accounting for 12.3% of the total, but the year-to-date figure for online sales showed a slight 0.5% decline.

After accounting for price changes, the volume of total retail sales in October fell by 4.9% YoY, following an 8.7% drop in September.

Over the first 10 months of 2024, the total retail sales volume was 8.8% lower than in the same period of 2023.

Sales of motor vehicles and parts recorded the sharpest drop at 27.5%, followed by books, newspapers, stationery, and gifts (-21.0%), furniture and fixtures (-18.0%), jewellery, watches, clocks, and valuable gifts (-11.1%), and optical shops (-10.2%). Sales of wearing apparel also declined by 9.8%, department store sales fell by 9.2%, and fuels dropped by 9.6%. Meanwhile, supermarket sales saw a modest decline of 0.4%.

Meanwhile, electrical goods and other durable goods saw a 17.1% YoY increase in October, whilst medicines and cosmetics grew by 3.9%. Sales of food, alcoholic drinks, and tobacco increased slightly by 0.3%, and other consumer goods not classified elsewhere rose by 1.0%.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the value of total retail sales for the three months ending October 2024 increased by 0.7% compared to the preceding three-month period, although the volume of total retail sales declined by 0.4% during the same period.