Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that all types of interviewed restaurants & similar establishments and retailers registered a year-on-year rise in receipts in May 2023. Receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments grew by 48.8% year-on-year, with notable increases in the receipts of Western Restaurants (+94.7%) and Chinese Restaurants (+68.4%). In addition, sales of the interviewed retailers rose by 50.6% year-on-year in May; Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers (+80.6%), Leather Goods Retailers (+70.5%), Department Stores (+62.9%) and Adults' Clothing Retailers (+61.1%) posted significant growth in sales.
In comparison with April, receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments edged down by 0.3% in May; Western Restaurants recorded a decrease of 11.0% in receipts whereas Chinese Restaurants saw a 2.1% rise. Besides, sales of the interviewed retailers went down by 2.8% month-on-month in May; retailers of Adults' Clothing and Leather Goods reported sales drop of 8.2% and 4.9% respectively, while sales of Motor Vehicles Retailers grew by 13.8%.
As regards the business expectations for June, there were 36% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expecting their receipts to decrease month-on-month, and the corresponding shares for Chinese Restaurants and Local Style Cafes, Congee & Noodle Shops were 45% and 32% respectively; on the other hand, 11% of the interviewed establishments predicted that their receipts would increase month-on-month in June. For retail trade, 40% of the interviewed retailers forecasted a month-on-month sales decline in June, with the corresponding shares for Leather Goods Retailers (60%), Motor Vehicle Retailers (55%) and Department Stores (50%) reaching 50% or above; by contrast, around 20% of the interviewed retailers expected a month-on-month sales rise in June.
The Business Outlook Index (BOI) that reflects the trend of month-on-month changes in receipts anticipated by the interviewed establishments was lower than 50 for both restaurants & similar establishments (37.7) and retail trade (39.7), indicating that the respondents from both industries envisaged a less favourable business outlook in June compared to May.
The sample of the Business Climate Survey on Restaurants & Similar Establishments and Retail Trade comprises 229 restaurants & similar establishments and 161 retailers, which accounted for 53.5% and 70.6% of the respective industry’s receipts in 2019. The Survey results were not extrapolated. The business performance in the reference month is reflected by the change in the receipts of the sampled establishments and retailers in the reference month as against the month of comparison. The value of the BOI ranges between 0 and 100; an index value above 50 implies that the industry has higher business expectations for the coming month as against the month of comparison, whereas an index value below 50 indicates the opposite.