Provisional Retail Sales Figures Up

The latest figures on retail sales released March 7 by the HKSAR Census and Statistics Department show the value of Hong Kong total retail sales in January 2003, provisionally estimated at HK$17.5 billion, increased by 9.7% compared with January 2002. After netting out the effect of price changes, the overall volume of retail sales increased by 11.5% in January 2003 from a year earlier.

Retail sales tend to show greater volatility in the first two months of a year, due to the timing of the Lunar New Year and the consequent seasonal high for consumer spending.

The revised estimate on the value of total retail sales in December 2002 was HK$15.5 billion, representing a decrease of 1.9% in value or 0.7% in volume as compared to a year earlier.



 

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