The total retail sales value in April, provisionally estimated at $38.8 billion, fell 9.8% year-on-year, the Census & Statistics Department announces.
The department said the revised estimate in March dropped 1.5% year-on-year. For the first four months, total retail sales rose 0.7% over a year earlier.
After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the total retail sales volume in April fell 9.5% year-on-year. The revised estimate of the total retail sales volume in March dropped 2.5% over a year earlier, while that for the first four months rose 1.2%.
Analysed by broad type of retail outlet, the sales value of wearing apparel increased by 11.3% in April. This was followed by sales of commodities in supermarkets (+6.8%); medicines and cosmetics (+8.6%); food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (+5.2%); and motor vehicles and parts (+15%).
The sales value of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts fell 39.9% in the month. This was followed by sales of commodities in department stores (-1.3%); electrical goods and photographic equipment (-8.3%); and miscellaneous consumer durable goods (-22.3%).
The fall in retail sales in April was mainly due to the plunge in the sales of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts. Apart from a high base of comparison caused by a spike in gold-related sales a year earlier, it may also partly reflect some moderation in visitor spending after a prolonged period of brisk growth.
Sales of many other goods that are more closely related to local consumption held firm, reflecting the positive local consumer sentiment amid full employment.
Looking ahead, the favourable job and income conditions should provide some support to local consumer sentiment, but the base effects and changing visitor spending pattern will continue to cloud the near-term outlook for retail sales business.
