Retail sales shrink 23.1% to $26.5m in July

The retail business environment will remain very difficult in the near term, says a government spokesperson.

The value of total retail sales shrunk 23.1% YoY to $26.5m in July, according to data from the Census & Statistics Department (C&SD).

After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the provisional estimate of the volume of total retail sales decreased by 23.9% YoY compared with a year earlier.

The surge of local COVID-19 cases and the resultant tightening of social distancing measures further disrupted consumption activities for the month, a government spokesperson noted in C&SD’s press release.

Despite recent stabilisiation in the local pandemic situation, which may help improve local consumer sentiment, retail business environment will remain very difficult in the near term with inbound tourism at a standstill, the spokesman added.

For the first seven months of 2020, total retail sales are estimated to have fallen by 33.5% YoY in volume compared with 7M 2019.

The value of sales of food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco contracted by 12.9%. This was followed by sales of other consumer goods, not elsewhere classified, with a 7.2% fall in value; and jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts, which plummeted 53.7% YoY.

The value of sales of electrical goods and other consumer durable goods, not elsewhere classified also dipped 5.6% YoY; sales values of commodities in department stores (-28.8%); wearing apparel (-42.5%); medicines and cosmetics (-50.9%); motor vehicles and parts (-13.1%); books, newspapers, stationery and gifts (-41.0%); Chinese drugs and herbs (-26.5%); footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (-53.6%); and optical shops (-37.0%).

On the upside, the value of sales of commodities in supermarkets jumped by 26.5% in July 2020 over a year earlier. Sales of fuels and furniture and fixtures also rose by 3.8% and 0.3% in value, respectively.