Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments went up by 2.6% month-on-month in August 2024; receipts of Western Restaurants rose by 2.3% whereas those of Japanese & Korean Restaurants fell by 1.1%. In addition, sales of the interviewed retailers grew by 8.5% month-on-month in August; sales of Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers, Department Stores and Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers increased by 16.3%, 16.1% and 15.9% respectively, while the sales of Motor Vehicle Retailers declined by 47.7%.
In comparison with August 2023, receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments dipped by 10.2% in August 2024. All types of interviewed establishments posted a year-on-year decrease in receipts, with Chinese Restaurants reporting a relatively large fall (-16.6%). Meanwhile, sales of the interviewed retailers slipped by 22.2% year-on-year in August; sales of Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers, Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers and Department Stores dropped by 37.3%, 22.0% and 21.5% respectively, while the sales of Supermarkets rose slightly by 0.1%.
As regards the business expectations for September, there were 53% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expecting their receipts to decrease month-on-month after the summer holiday, and the corresponding shares for Chinese Restaurants and Japanese & Korean Restaurants reached 66% and 56% respectively. On the other hand, about 13% of the interviewed establishments predicted that their receipts would increase month-on-month in September. For retail trade, 47% of the interviewed retailers expected a month-on-month sales decline in September, with the corresponding shares for Department Stores (75%) and Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers (70%) being relatively high. By contrast, around 10% of the interviewed retailers anticipated a month-on-month sales growth in September.
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 (30.0) and retail trade (31.8), indicating that the respondents from both industries envisaged a less favourable business outlook in September compared to August.
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.
