Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments went up by 1.9% year-on-year in November 2024, with receipts of Japanese & Korean Restaurants rising by 12.6%. Meanwhile, sales of the interviewed retailers fell by 9.2% year-on-year in November; sales of retailers of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery, Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles and Leather Goods dropped by 24%, 12.8% and 11.2% respectively, while sales of Motor Vehicle Retailers increased by 26.9%.
In comparison with October, receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments went down by 4.2% in November after the National Day holidays. Receipts of Chinese Restaurants and Local Style Cafes, Congee & Noodle Shops decreased by 4.3% and 3.7% respectively. In addition, sales of the interviewed retailers fell by 8.3% month-on-month in November; sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers and Supermarkets dropped by 15.6% and 11.5% respectively in November, while sales of Motor Vehicle Retailers rose by 17%.
As regards the business expectations for December, there were 35% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expecting their receipts to increase month-on-month on account of the Christmas holidays; the corresponding shares for Western Restaurants and Japanese & Korean Restaurants were 56% and 35% respectively. On the other hand, about 17% of the interviewed establishments predicted that their receipts would decrease month-on-month in December. For retail trade, 42% of the interviewed retailers expected a month-on-month sales growth in December. The corresponding shares for Department Stores, Adults' Clothing Retailers and Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers were 63%, 48% and 43% respectively. By contrast, around 20% of the interviewed retailers expected a month-on-month sales drop in December.
The Business Outlook Index (BOI) that reflects the trend of month-on-month changes in receipts anticipated by the interviewed establishments was higher than 50 for both restaurants & similar establishments (59.3) and retail trade (61.5), indicating that the respondents from both industries expected a better business outlook in December compared to November.
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. As a panel sample of establishments is used in this Survey, the changes in receipts in the reference month as compared to the month of comparison serve as reference indicators of the business performance of restaurants & similar establishments and retailers. 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 reference month, whereas an index value below 50 indicates the opposite.
