HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s shops and businesses buckled under the full force of the coronavirus outbreak in February as retail sales plummeted by the most on record amid growing travel restrictions and social-distancing measures.
Retail sales by value fell 44% in the month, the largest drop on record, to HK$22.7bil (US$2.93bil) according to a government release. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a median 40.3% decline.
The slide in February marks 13 straight months of negative readings. Retail sales by volume also dropped a record 46.7%.
“The business environment of retail trade will remain extremely austere in the near term, as the Covid-19 pandemic has brought inbound tourism to a standstill and severely dented local consumption demand, ” the government said in a release.
Distortions from the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday also contributed to the declines, the government said.
Retail sales by value for the first two months of the year sank 31.8% from a year ago, the government said.
Digging deeper into the two-month period, the value of sales of food, alcohol and tobacco dropped 9.3%, along with a 58.6% slump in jewelry, watches and clocks and valuable gifts, and broad declines across most other categories.
One bright spot in the report: The value of sales of commodities in supermarkets increased 11.1% for the two-month period. Sales of fuel also rose. — Bloomberg
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