Hong Kong’s retail sales jump by record 40.9 per cent in March, while total of mainland Chinese tourists for ‘golden week’ beats estimates
- Economists say recovery should continue to gain traction in months ahead, given stronger than expected number of mainland Chinese tourists visiting city
- Travel Industry Authority also logs 453 registered inbound tour groups from mainland over holiday period, involving 13,800 visitors
Hong Kong’s retail sales jumped by a record 40.9 per cent in March from a year ago, helping to pull the local economy out of recession, while the number of mainland Chinese tourists arriving over the “golden week” holiday beat estimates.
Provisional figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Thursday showed retail sales grew to HK$33.6 billion (US$4.28 billion) in March, year on year, slightly more than February’s total of HK$33.1 billion.
While the 40.9 per cent growth was the strongest since record-keeping for retail sales began in 2005, the base of comparison is fairly low. In March last year, sales were anaemic as the city battled the fifth wave of the pandemic with rounds of lockdowns, tough social-distancing rules and travel restrictions, a regime that was only completely abandoned in February.
A government spokesman predicted the recent recovery of inbound tourism and consumption would continue to boost sales.
“The disbursement of the new round of consumption vouchers will render further support,” he said, referring to the first tranche of HK$5,000 in e-vouchers distributed in April.
The strong retail sales helped to boost economic growth to 2.7 per cent in the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2022, ending four consecutive quarters of contraction.
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Economists said the recovery should continue to gain traction in the months ahead, given the stronger than expected number of mainland Chinese tourists visiting the city during the extended holiday.
Thomas Shik Chun-sing, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank, said the latest retail sales figures showed the return of tourists was bolstering the economy.
“The border reopening has boosted retail sales in tourist-related categories, including jewellery and apparel, which recorded a very high increase in March,” Shik said. “We also see that domestic consumption has regained momentum, given the consumer durable goods has pretty decent growth.”
He predicted the economic recovery this year would be largely driven by the retail and service sectors as exporters would continue to face difficulties.
Immigration Department statistics released on Thursday showed 625,538 visitors from the mainland crossed the border between Saturday and Wednesday, accounting for 36.6 per cent of 1.71 million arrivals recorded during the period.
Payment platform AlipayHK said transaction volume for local merchants had nearly doubled in the first three days of the extended holiday compared with the same period last year, with noticeable surges in sales of electronic products, jewellery, clothing and catering.
AlipayHK is a joint venture established by Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.
Meanwhile, the Travel Industry Authority logged a total of 453 registered inbound tour groups from the mainland over the break, involving 13,800 visitors. Among such tours, 189 of them were shopping-focused while 263 centred on sightseeing.
Last month, some residents complained about crowding brought by the return of tour groups. Authority executive director Annie Fonda told a radio programme it had organised patrols at tourist hotspots and had not received any complaints during the holiday.
“The arrangement for tour groups was generally smooth, but the number of inbound tours during golden week this year is fewer than in 2019,” Fonda said, adding the average number of daily tours from January to May this year was 200.
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She noted eateries were not under the authority’s scope and urged restaurant operators to fulfil their social responsibility to minimise nuisance in communities.
“We hope they cooperate to coordinate and disperse the flow of people,” Fonda said. “If they don’t, they may need to be included in regulations by only being allowed to receive customers according to capacity.”
