Hong Kong's retail sales for September down 6.4 pct

Hong Kong's provisionally estimated value of total retail sales in September dropped 6.4 percent from a year ago to 35.2 billion HK dollars (about 4.5 billion U.S. dollars), the Census and Statistics Department said here on Tuesday.

For the first nine months of 2015 taken together, the value of total retail sales decreased 2.7 percent compared with the same period in 2014.

A government spokesman said retail sales slackened further in September, with most types of retail outlet showing year-on-year declines in sales, reflecting the weakening of inbound tourism and the spillover of heightened stock market volatility during the summer on consumer sentiment.

Looking ahead, retail business will likely be still constrained by the weak performance of inbound tourism in the near term, and much will depend on how the dimmer global economic outlook will affect the economy and local consumer sentiment, the spokesman said.

According to the data, the value of sales of jewelry, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts decreased 22.9 percent year-on-year, followed by sales of wearing apparel 12.3 percent, fuels 11.8 percent, and commodities in department stores 5.1 percent.

On the other hand, the value of sales of commodities in supermarkets increased 1.7 percent in September, while the sales of food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco jumped 22.8 percent due to the Mid-autumn Festival. Enditem