Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments rose by 15.1% year-on-year in October 2022. All the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments registered a year-on-year growth in receipts, with Western Restaurants, Chinese Restaurants and Japanese & Korean Restaurants recording respective increases of 26.4%, 19.9% and 16.9%. In addition, sales of the interviewed retailers went up by 27.3% year-on-year in October. Sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers (+69.0%) showed a notable rise, and sales of Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers and Leather Goods Retailers grew by 38.4% and 38.2% respectively; meanwhile, only Supermarkets (-10.7%) recorded a sales decline.
In comparison with September, receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments went up by 3.2% in October, with receipts of Western Restaurants rising by 9.8%. On the other hand, sales of the interviewed retailers dropped by 3.2% month-on-month in October, with sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers, Department Stores and Motor Vehicle Retailers decreasing by 12.4%, 12.2% and 12.1% respectively; in contrast, sales of Adults' Clothing Retailers increased by 14.6%.
As regards the business expectations for November, there were 54% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expecting their receipts to decrease month-on-month; the corresponding shares for Chinese Restaurants and Western Restaurants were 66% and 54% respectively. On the other hand, only 9% of the interviewed establishments predicted that their receipts would increase month-on-month in November. Meanwhile, 48% of the interviewed retailers forecasted a month-on-month sales drop in November, with the corresponding shares for Leather Goods Retailers (60%), Department Stores (58%) and Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers (57%) exceeding 50%. By contrast, around 20% of the interviewed retailers expected a month-on-month sales growth in November, and the corresponding proportion for Motor Vehicle Retailers reached 55%.
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 (27.4) and retail trade (36.2), indicating that the respondents from both industries envisaged a less favourable business outlook in November compared to October.
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.
