Smokers in Hong Kong consumed an average of 10 cigarettes a day in the first seven months of the year, as the number of cigarettes imported into the city by tobacco firms edged up.
The increase in tobacco imports was believed by some industry watchers to be in anticipation of official plans to tighten controls over how and where people smoke by the middle of next year.
The new regulations will include the elimination of cigarette signs at hawker stalls and a reduction in the size of price boards.
The latest statistics show 1.64 million individual cigarettes were imported by cigarette companies during the first seven months of the year, up slightly from 1.59 million cigarettes during the same period last year.
In what critics believe is a last-ditch attempt to get people hooked on nicotine before the measures are introduced, more brands catering to different market segments have recently gone on sale.
Early this year, Japan Tobacco International introduced Pianissimo, a brand of slim menthol cigarettes critics say are targeted towards young women.
