No Christmas cheer for Hong Kong's retailers as they reveal lower-than-expected sales growth

Hong Kong's retail sales grew just 5.7 per cent year on year in December, an especially poor performance for the peak Christmas shopping period.

"It's very rarely this bad. In 2012, it was 8.8 per cent," Hong Kong Retail Management Association chairwoman Caroline Mak Sui-king said yesterday.

Total retail sales in December are estimated at HK$49.7 billion. For the whole of last year, the figure came to HK$494.5 billion, an increase of 11 per cent from 2012.

Last year's growth was slightly better than 2012, which saw muted growth of 9.8 per cent from 2011. Total sales for 2011 grew 24.9 per cent.

"Our members had said they felt low double-digit or high single-digit growth of 9 to 11 per cent was possible for December. However, July to December was all single-digit growth," Mak said.

This Christmas shopping season marked the second holiday in which retailers experienced softer-than-usual sales. October, usually a peak period for spending along with the October 1 "golden week" holiday, saw a modest 6.3 per cent year-on-year growth.