HK retail sales down 14.6% to HK$46.6bn in January

    Hong Kong's value of total retail sales in January, provisionally estimated at HK$46.6 billion, dropped 14.6% compared with the same month in 2014. The revised estimate of the value of total retail sales in December 2014 fell 4% from a year earlier, according to the Census and Statistics Department.
  After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales in January declined 13.9% from a year earlier. The revised estimate of the volume of total retail sales in December 2014 dropped 1.4% from a year earlier.
  A government spokesman said looking ahead, the near-term performance of retail sales will continue to hinge on the labour market conditions and inbound tourism growth.    
  In interpreting the figures for January, it should be noted that retail sales tend to show greater volatility in the first two months of a year due to the timing of the Lunar New Year. Local consumer spending normally attains a seasonal high immediately before the Festival. As the Lunar New Year fell on February 19 this year but on January 31 last year, the year-on-year comparison of the figures for January 2015 with those for January 2014 might have been affected by this factor to a certain extent.