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Bloomberg
Hong Kong’s retailers didn’t see much benefit from the key holiday shopping season, with sales plunging in December after the government tightened controls to combat a surge in virus cases.
Retail sales by value fell
13.2% from a year ago to HK$31.4 billion ($4.05 billion), after dropping a revised 4.1% in November, the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department said in a statement. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was -14.7%. Retail sales by volume declined 14%.
“The business environment of the retail trade will remain challenging in the near term amid frozen inbound tourism and the ongoing local epidemic,†the government said in its report.