HK Retail Sales Value in February up 35.8% Year-on-year

The value of total retail sales in Hong Kong in February 2010 was provisionally estimated at 26.9 billion Hong Kong dollars, up 35.8 percent over a year earlier, according to a release by Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) Tuesday.

A Government spokesman says that retail sales picked up strongly further in February, even after netting the distortion caused by the timing of the Lunar New Year. The improvement in labor market conditions along with the economic recovery has reinforced consumer confidence. The robust performance of inbound tourism has also been highly supportive.

Going forward, consumer sentiment should stay firm, with the economy gathering further momentum, said the spokesman.

After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales increased by 31.5 percent in February 2010 when compared with a year earlier. The relevant components of the Consumer Price Index are used as deflators.

The revised estimate of the value of total retail sales in January 2010 stood at 29.3 billion HK dollars, up by 6.5 percent year-on-year, while the volume of total retail sales increased by 3.2 percent.

Taking the first two months of 2010 together, total retail sales increased by 18.8 percent in value or 15.1 percent in volume over the same period a year earlier.