Retail sales value up 23.4%

February 02, 2012

The value of total retail sales in December was provisionally estimated at $43 billion, a 23.4% increase over a year earlier, the Census & Statistics Department said today.
 
After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales rose 17.1% when compared with the same month a year earlier.
 
The revised estimate of the value of total retail sales in November, at $33.4 billion, was up 23.4% on the same month last year, while the volume of total retail sales increased 16.9%.
 
The volume of sales of miscellaneous consumer durable goods increased the most, by 163.3%.
 
This was followed by sales of electrical goods and photographic equipment (+45.4% in volume); commodities in department stores (+18.7%); wearing apparel (+17%); jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts (+15.9%); footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (+13.2%); miscellaneous consumer goods (+11.8%); commodities in supermarkets (+5.8%); fuels (+4.6%); and furniture and fixtures (+4.6%).
 
The volume of sales of food, alcohol and tobacco decreased 2.3% in December compared with a year earlier.
 
For 2011 as a whole, total retail sales grew 24.8% in value and 18.4% in volume over 2010.