Coronavirus: Hong Kong retail sales shrink 14 per cent in January, extending sector’s two-year decline that took hold during 2019 protests

Retail sales across the city worth HK$32.6 billion in first month of 2021, down 13.6 per cent year on year

Sales in the city have been falling for two years in a row, fuelled by the ongoing coronavirus crisis and 2019 social unrest

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Hong Kong retail has been in turmoil since the eruption in 2019 of anti-government protests. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 4:41pm, 3 Mar 2021Updated: 6:56pm, 3 Mar 2021

Hong Kong’s two-year run of declining retail sales has extended into the first month of 2021, as the government pins the sector’s recovery on the success of the citywide Covid-19 vaccination programme.

Retail sales were worth a total of HK$32.6 billion (US$4.2 billion) in January, according to provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Wednesday, a 13.6 per cent year-on-year drop. The decline for December 2020 on the same month the previous year was 13.3 per cent.

Reflected in two straight years of falling sales, the coronavirus pandemic has kept big-spending tourists away and came hot on the heels of the 2019 anti-government protests that represented another major dampener on consumer sentiment.

For 2020 as a whole, total retail sales plunged by a record 24.3 per cent year on year, after tumbling 11.1 per cent the previous year.

Revealing online performance for the first time, the government said about 7.3 per cent of sales in January were generated from cyber transactions, totalling HK$2.4 billion. The online sales jumped 92.1 per cent compared with the same month a year ago.

A government spokesman said total retail sales last month continued to decline year on year amid the city’s fourth wave of coronavirus infections, which started in November last year.

The business outlook for retail would remain challenging in the near term, the spokesman added, with the health crisis continuing and the ongoing lack of inbound tourism.

The city’s vaccination programme which began on Friday will “help lay a firm foundation for the revival of the retail sector”, according to the spokesman.