Coronavirus: Hong Kong retail shrinks by a third for first half of 2020 as Covid-19 crisis pummels sector
- Consumer sales down 33.3 per cent for first six months of this year compared with January to June 2019
- City records 17th straight month of retail decline, with worse in store as city battles deadliest wave of infections yet
Hong Kong retail sales plunged by a third in the first half of 2020 from the same period last year as the coronavirus crisis devastated the sector.
Consumer spending in June stood at HK$26.5 billion (US$3.4 billion), according to provisional figures the Census and Statistics Department released on Thursday, shrinking 24.8 per cent year-on-year to mark the 17th straight month of decline.
Even though last month’s performance reflected an improvement on the 32.9 per cent recorded in May, the drop contributed to the retail sector suffering a 33.3 per cent slump in sales for the first six months of this year from the equivalent period in 2019.
A government spokesman said the rate of fall in June slowed as the epidemic abated that month, but he warned the industry was facing renewed challenges as the public health crisis worsened.
“With inbound tourism remaining at a standstill and local consumption hit by the surge in local Covid-19 cases in July and the resultant tightening of social-distancing measures, the operating environment for the retail trade has turned more austere again,” he said.
Retail sales were worth HK$160.8 billion over the first half of 2020, down from the corresponding 2019 figure of HK$241.3 billion.