Hong Kong retail sales drop for 11th straight month in January, down by 3.2%

Hong Kong retail sales dropped for the 11th month in a row in January, falling by 3.2 per cent year on year, official figures released on Monday showed.

Provisional estimates by the Census and Statistics Department put the total value of retail sales at HK$35.3 billion (US$4.54 billion) for the month.

Online sales accounted for 6.9 per cent, and were provisionally estimated at HK$2.4 billion, a 3.5 per cent year-on-year increase.

Under a revised estimate, online retail sales for December 2024 decreased by 17.8 per cent compared with a year earlier.

A government spokesman said retail sales recorded a much narrower year-on-year decline in January, thanks partly to the earlier arrival of Lunar New Year.

But the department also noted that retail sales tended to show greater volatility in the first two months of a year due to the timing of the holiday.