Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that there were 83% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments reporting a year-on-year rise in receipts in March 2021, a decrease of 4 percentage points from February; the corresponding proportions of Japanese & Korean Restaurants and Chinese Restaurants stood at 92% and 88% respectively. Meanwhile, the proportion of interviewed retailers recording a year-on-year sales rise in March (84%) inched up by 1 percentage point from February. All of the interviewed retailers of Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles and Leather Goods 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 (86.9) and retail trade (86.2) were both higher than 50, implying that the business of these two industries in March fared better compared to the same month last year.

As regards the business expectations for April, about 20% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expected their receipts to increase month-to-month, down by 9 percentage points from March; the corresponding share of Local Style Cafes, Congee & Noodle Shops (23%) fell by 34 percentage points. Moreover, 24% of the interviewed retailers anticipated a month-to-month sales rise in April, a decrease of 9 percentage points from the preceding month. The corresponding proportions of Department Stores (25%) and Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers (10%) declined by 25 percentage points and 20 percentage points respectively. The Business Outlook Index (BOI) that reflects the trend of month-to-month changes in receipts anticipated by the interviewed establishments was lower than 50 for both restaurants & similar establishments (44.4) and retail trade (49.0), indicating that the respondents from both industries predicted a less favourable business outlook for April as compared to March.

The sample of the Business Climate Survey on Restaurants & Similar Establishments and Retail Trade comprises 229 restaurants & similar establishments and 159 retailers, which accounted for 53.5% and 70.6% of the respective industry’s receipts in 2019. The values of the BPI and the BOI range between 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.