HK retail sales rise 14.9% to HK$46.6bn in February

    Hong Kong's value of total retail sales in February, provisionally estimated at HK$46.6 billion, rose 14.9% compared with the same month in 2014, according to the Census and Statistics Department.
  The revised estimate of the value of total retail sales in January dropped 14.5% from a year earlier. For the first two months of 2015 taken together, total retail sales fell 2% in value compared with the same period in 2014.
  After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales in February grew 18.2% over a year earlier. The revised estimate of the volume of total retail sales in January dropped 13.8% from a year earlier. For the first two months of 2015 taken together, total retail sales slid 0.3% in volume compared with the same period in 2014.
  A government spokesman noted that taking the first two months of 2015 together to remove the distortions caused by the difference in timing of the Lunar New Year holidays, retail sales were nearly flat in volume terms compared to the same period last year. The subdued performance was mainly due to the notable fall in the sales of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts, conceivably reflecting the weak tourist spending on big-ticket items. Yet, the performance of many items that are more closely related to local consumption showed some relative improvement from December 2014.
  Looking ahead, the near-term performance of retail sales is still subject to uncertainties, depending on the labour market conditions as well as inbound tourism growth. Besides, the Government also needs to closely monitor how various uncertainties in the external environment may affect local consumption sentiment going forward.