Retail sales plunged 23.6% in November

Sales of luxury goods fell 43.5% despite the Christmas season.

Not even the Christmas season could uplift local retailers’ performance as sales shrunk 23.6% YoY to $30b in November, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD).

For the first eleven months of 2019, it was provisionally estimated that the value of total retail sales have dropped by 10.3% YoY compared with the same period in 2018. This has already surpassed earlier estimates an 8.1% decrease as a result of the ongoing protests.

Sales of jewellery, watches and clocks and valuable gifts continued to lead declines with a 43.5% YoY drop in sales. This was followed by sales of commodities in department stores with a 32.9% decrease in value. Sales of medicines and cosmetics (-33.4%; wearing apparel (-31.9%); footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (-31.5%); and optical shops (-27.9%) also recorded significant declines in sales value.

On the other hand, the value of sales of commodities in supermarkets as well as sales of fuels increased by 2.6% YoY and 11.2% YoY in November, respectively.