Hong Kong fourth wave: record fall in retail sales over first 11 months of 2020 as coronavirus hammers economy

Name: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to visit Beijing for talks on reviving economy
Uploaded: 2021-01-04T09:24:44.000Z
Duration: 56 s
Description: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to visit Beijing for talks on reviving economy

Consumption drops 25.3 per cent between January and November, compared to the same period in 2019, government data shows

The health crisis will continue to pose challenges for retailers in the near term, spokesman says

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The retail industry has been forced to rely on local consumers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Nora Tam

Kathleen Magramo

Published: 5:24pm, 4 Jan 2021Updated: 11:49pm, 4 Jan 2021

Retail sales in Hong Kong plunged by a record 25 per cent during the first 11 months of last year as the coronavirus pandemic kept big-spending tourists away and local consumers tightened their purse strings.

The health crisis would continue to pose challenges for retailers in the near-term, a government spokesman said.

Figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Monday showed retail sales dropped by 25.3 per cent between January and November, compared to the same period in the year before, marking the worst performance since records began in 2004 and far exceeding the 11.1 per cent decline for all of 2019.

Sales in November were down by 4 per cent, year on year, a slight easing over the 8.7 per cent drop recorded in October. Consumption dropped to HK$28.7 billion (US$3.70 billion), marking the 22nd consecutive month of contraction.

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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to visit Beijing for talks on reviving economy

The government spokesman said the narrowing year-on-year decline was primarily due to the increase in sales at retail outlets of consumer durable goods. But the fourth wave of coronavirus infections had weighed on local consumption sentiment since the latter half of November, which would present a challenging environment for retailers in the near term.