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Bloomberg
Hong Kong’s retail environment showed further signs of improvement in November, although the recovery may have been short-lived as the city was hit with a fresh wave of virus infections and imposed new restrictions late in the month.
The provisional value of total retail sales in November 2020 was HK$28.7 billion ($3.7 billion), down by 4% compared with the same month in 2019. That was better than the
median forecast of -7.4% in a Bloomberg survey of economists and an improvement from a revised -8.7% in October. Sales by volume fell 4.7%, according to the government statement.
The economy showed some signs of improvement in the second half of 2020 alongside recoveries across the region
as China’s rebound fuelled demand. However, that’s been dampened by fresh waves of infections since November, with the city re-imposing social distancing restrictions including shuttering bars and nightclubs to help curb the outbreaks.
Restrictions were tightened further in December ahead of the critical year-end shopping.