Hong Kong retail sales rally picks up in August

In August, retail sales managed to add at a faster pace in Hong Kong in contrast with July. That’s what government data disclosed. However, the outlook is still overshadowed by external headwinds, including the impact of US-China trade clashes.

August retail sales leapt by 9.5% from 2017 in value terms hitting HK$38.2 billion, thus demonstrating their eighteenth month of expansion, in contrast with July’s 7.8% leap.

However, in volume terms, in August, retail sales soared by 8.1% in contrast with July’s 5.9% rally.

A government spokesman told that favorable job as well as income conditions, and also sustained surge in inbound tourism are expected to back the retail sector in the nearer future.

For the first eight months of this year, total retail sales tacked on by 12.2% in value terms as well as 10.6% in volume terms.

Market experts told that escalating China-US trade tension was impacting market sentiment, while a weaker Yuan also backed the Hong Kong dollar.

Surge in China's manufacturing sector decreased in September due to the fact that domestic and external demand receded.

Market experts actually expect China's surge to cool further in the nearer future, with a barrage of August economic reports doing little to debunk views that domestic demand is decreasing.

In August, China’s retail sales jumped a better-than-anticipated 9%, powered by home appliances and jewelry.

Meanwhile, market experts are quite optimistic that the influx of tourists from mainland China to Hong Kong will still be firm enough over the long term.

As a matter of fact, August tourist arrivals inched up by up to 17.4% from 2017 hitting 5.896 million, as the Hong Kong Tourism Board informed. The count of mainland visitors jumped by 22%, amounting to up to 81.8% of the total.

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