Advertisement

Prudent Hong Kong shoppers drive 2.9pc retail sales slump for March

Surprise drop in domestic consumption blamed for overall decline of 2.9pc in March

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Retail sales in the first three months decreased by 2.3 per cent in value, compared with the same quarter last year, but retail volume was virtually unchanged. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong's retail sales for March dropped by 2.9 per cent year on year to an estimated HK$38.4 billion, worse than market predictions, due to weaker-than-expected local buying.

Advertisement

The decrease, announced yesterday by the Census and Statistics Department, was a disappointment to economists, who expected an increase of 4 to 5 per cent from the same period last year.

As tourist arrivals went down 8.7 per cent in March from the same month a year ago, it was anticipated that the luxury sector would remain sluggish. This was confirmed by yesterday's figures showing an 18.6 per cent drop in sales of jewellery, watches and valuable gifts for the month.

What surprised economists was how much local shoppers had tightened their purse strings.

Sales in supermarkets dipped 0.7 per cent for the month, compared to a year-on-year increase of 3.7 per cent for January and February combined.

Advertisement

The increase in sales of food, alcohol and tobacco also narrowed to 4 per cent in March from 15.3 per cent in the first two months of this year.

Advertisement