Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments went down by 6.8% year-on-year in November 2022, with Chinese Restaurants and Local Style Cafes, Congee & Noodle Shops recording respective decreases of 13.5% and 6.8%. Meanwhile, sales of the interviewed retailers shrank by 33.1% year-on-year in November. Sales of Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers fell by 48.6%, while Department Stores and Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers both posted a sales decline of 45.3%.

In comparison with October, receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments dipped by 9.4% in November; all the interviewed establishments registered a decrease in receipts, with receipts of Chinese Restaurants dropping by 11.4%. Meanwhile, sales of the interviewed retailers went down by 15.3% month-on-month in November, with sales of Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers and Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers falling by 29.4% and 29.1% respectively; in contrast, sales of Motor Vehicle Retailers increased by 2.4%.

As regards the business expectations for December, there were 40% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expecting their receipts to increase month-on-month; the corresponding shares for Western Restaurants, Chinese Restaurants and Japanese & Korean Restaurants were 50%, 44% and 41% respectively. On the other hand, 33% of the interviewed establishments predicted that their receipts would decrease month-on-month in December. Meanwhile, 48% of the interviewed retailers forecasted a month-on-month sales growth in December, with the corresponding shares for Leather Goods Retailers (80%) and Department Stores (75%) exceeding 70%. By contrast, around 22% of the interviewed retailers expected a month-on-month sales decline in December, and the corresponding proportion for Motor Vehicle Retailers reached 46%.

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 (53.1) and retail trade (63.1), 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. 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.