Strong domestic consumption and tourist dollars helped push retail sales in Hong Kong almost 17 percent higher in August, the government said yesterday.
Total retail sales for the month hit HK$26.5 billion (US$3.4 billion), the Census and Statistics Department said, up 16.9 percent year on year and marking the 12th consecutive monthly rise.
Retail sales rose 17.9 percent in the first eight months of this year over the same period last year, the department said.
The growth rate was weaker than July’s 19.2 percent, but stronger than the median 16.0 percent forecast of five economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
“Retail sales grew strongly in August, as local consumer spending continued to display strength,” a government spokesman said, adding that “vibrant growth in inbound tourism also added impetus to retail sales performance.”
“Looking ahead, improvement in income and job conditions, coupled with thriving inbound tourism, should continue to bode well for retail business,” the spokesman added.
Sales of consumer durable goods led the gains, rising 55.7 percent, followed by motor vehicles and parts (up 49.6 percent), jewelery, watches, clocks and valuable gifts (up 29.6 percent) and electronic equipment (up 21.3 percent).
Consumer demand is finding support from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which has held its benchmark interest rate at a -record-low 0.5 percent since December 2008. Falling -unemployment and record tourist inflows have also boosted sales.
“The easy money conditions look set to feed Hong Kong’s domestic demand engine for a while longer,” Donna Kwok (郭浩庄), an economist at HSBC Holdings PLC in Hong Kong, said before the report.
The influx of visitors and improved labor market “helped to sustain the feel-good factor that’s circulating through shops in the city,” she said.
Visitor arrivals surged an annualized 22 percent in August to a record 3.46 million, with more than two-thirds of them coming from China, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Hong Kong’s -unemployment rate fell to a 20-month low of 4.2 percent in the three months through August, according to government data.
Hong Kong’s monetary policy decisions track those of the US Federal Reserve because the territory’s currency is pegged to the US dollar.
Luk Fook Holdings (International) Ltd (六福珠寶集團), a jewelry retailer, recorded a 30 percent increase in same-store sales in Hong Kong and Macau between April and August from a year earlier, the company said yesterday.
By volume, retail sales gained 14.7 percent in August from a year earlier.
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