Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that there were 74% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments reporting a year-on-year rise in receipts in April 2021, a decrease of 9 percentage points from March; the corresponding proportions of Japanese & Korean Restaurants (62%) and Western Restaurants (56%) dropped by 31 percentage points and 15 percentage points respectively. Meanwhile, the proportion of interviewed retailers recording a year-on-year sales rise in April (84%) remained broadly the same as in March. All of the interviewed retailers of Leather Goods and Watches, Clocks & Jewellery registered a year-on-year sales increase. The Business Performance Index (BPI) values that reflect the trend of year-on-year changes in receipts of restaurants & similar establishments (79.6) and retail trade (85.4) were both higher than 50, implying that the business of these two industries in April fared better compared to the same month last year.

As regards the business expectations for May, there were 56% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expecting their receipts to increase month-to-month, up by 36 percentage points from April; the corresponding shares of Chinese Restaurants (70%) and Japanese & Korean Restaurants (46%) surged by 60 percentage points and 27 percentage points respectively. Moreover, 50% of the interviewed retailers anticipated a month-to-month sales rise in May, a growth of 26 percentage points from the preceding month. The corresponding proportion of Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers (50%) expanded by 40 percentage points, and the shares of Department Stores (58%) and Supermarkets (56%) both rose by 33 percentage points. The Business Outlook Index (BOI) that reflects the trend of month-to-month changes in receipts anticipated by the interviewed establishments was higher than 50 for both restaurants & similar establishments (75.4) and retail trade (68.3), indicating that the respondents from both industries predicted a better business outlook for May as compared to April.

The sample of the Business Climate Survey on Restaurants & Similar Establishments andRetail Trade comprises 229 restaurants & similar establishments and 161 retailers, whichaccounted for 53.5% and 70.6% of the respective industry’s receipts in 2019. The values of the BPI andtheBOIrangebetween 0 and 100; an index value above 50 implies that the industry has better business performance in the reference month or higher business expectations for the coming month as against the month of comparison, whereas an index value below 50 indicates the opposite. The Survey results were not extrapolated and only reflect the assessment of the business performance and expectations of the sample restaurants and retailers.