The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released the latest figures on retail sales today (August 1).
The value of total retail sales in June 2006, provisionally estimated at $17.4 billion, increased by 5.2 percent over a year earlier. After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales increased by 3.3 percent in June 2006 over a year earlier.
The volume of retail sales is derived from the value of retail sales after adjusting for price changes. The relevant components of the Consumer Price Index are used as deflators.
In parallel with the rebasing of Consumer Price Index, the series of value and volume indices of retail sales have both been rebased, taking October 2004 to September 2005 as the new base period. As from the data release for the reference month of June 2006, the published value and volume indices of retail sales and their year-on-year rates of changes relate to the rebased series.
The revised estimate of the value of total retail sales in May 2006, at $18.6 billion, increased by 5.3 percent compared with May 2005, while the volume of total retail sales increased by 3.5 percent.
Taking the first half of 2006 together, total retail sales increased by 6.4 percent in value or 5.5 percent in volume over the same period a year earlier.
Analysed by type of retail outlet and comparing June 2006 withJune 2005, the volume of sales of commodities in department stores increased the most, by 14.8 percent.
This was followed by sales of footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (+12.0 percent in volume); miscellaneous consumer durable goods (+5.7 percent); miscellaneous consumer goods (+5.4 percent); wearing apparel (+4.6 percent); commodities in supermarkets (+4.1 percent).
On the other hand, the volume of sales of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts and of fuels decreased by 8.7 percent and 4.2 percent respectively in June 2006 compared with a year earlier.
Based on the seasonally adjusted series, the volume of total retail sales increased by 2.4 percent in the second quarter of 2006 compared with the preceding quarter.
These retail sales statistics are primarily intended to measure the sales receipts of goods sold by local retail establishments, for gauging the short-term business performance of the local retail sector. They cover consumer spending on goods but not on services.
Moreover, they include spending on goods by visitors in Hong Kong but not by Hong Kong residents outside Hong Kong. Hence they should not be regarded as a comprehensive indicator of overall consumer spending. In this context, it may be noted that the share of consumer spending on services in overall consumer spending has been increasing over time.
Users interested in the trend of overall consumer spending should refer to the quarterly series of private consumption expenditure (PCE), which is a major component of the Gross Domestic Product.
