Hong Kong retail sales fell sharply in January as a fourth wave of Covid-19 kept shoppers at home. But the pandemic is driving sharp growth in online shopping.
Sales declined by 13.6 per cent compared with January last year, reaching an estimated US$4.2 billion (HKD32.6 billion), according to the Census and Statistics Department. The decline followed December’s revised 13.3 per cent drop.
However, a government spokesman cautioned that January’s figure was conceivably distorted by the difference in timing of the Lunar New Year. Accordingly, comparing combined January and February figures in a month’s time would provide a more accurate year-on-year comparison of the retail market’s performance.
He said the territory’s retail trade will remain difficult in the near term due to the impact of the pandemic causing a freeze on inbound tourism.
“As such, it is pivotal to contain the epidemic. If the Covid-19 vaccination program yields the intended results, it should help lay a firm foundation for the revival of the retail sector and a broader based recovery of the economy later in the year,” he said.
Online retail’s share of market soars
The pandemic’s impact on online retail sales in Hong Kong was pronounced in January, accounting for 7.3 per cent of total sales (within Hong Kong) – representing 92.1-per-cent year-on-year growth, provisionally estimated at US$309 million.
For overall retail sales, the categories contributing most to the month’s decline were supermarkets, down by 9 per cent, food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (down 16.3 per cent), jewellery, watches and clocks (down 31.7 per cent), department-store sales (down 17.4 per cent), apparel (down 20.4 per cent), medicines and cosmetics (down 40.1 per cent), footwear and accessories (down 35.1 per cent), books, newspapers, stationery and gifts (down 15 per cent), Chinese drugs and herbs (down 22.7 per cent), and optical-store sales (down 25.5 per cent).
Categories to show growth were electrical goods, up by 28.2 per cent year on year, and furniture and homewares, up 25 per cent.
Quarter on quarter, Hong Kong retail sales rose by 1.5 per cent in the three months to January 31.
