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Gift-giving boosts Swiss watch sales
By Emily Ford |
February 22, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GIFT-GIVING during China's Spring Festival helped support a strong rise in sales of Swiss watches in January, a report showed yesterday.
Exports of Switzerland's most famous luxury item to the Chinese mainland rose 32.2 percent to 120.1 million Swiss francs (US$131.4 million) last month, compared with the same period a year earlier, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry said. Hong Kong contributed 291.2 million Swiss francs to global sales in January, up 33.2 percent.
The robust performances of both the mainland and Hong Kong were in line with the 2011 trend and helped the overall value of Swiss watch exports grow 15.5 percent to 1.3 billion Swiss francs in January.
Thomas Mesmin, an analyst at European brokerage CA Chevreux, told Shanghai Daily that sales to China showed "no clear signs of deceleration." Some commentators have expressed fears that growth in China's booming luxury goods industry may be cooling.
Mesmin, however, cautioned that because the Spring Festival fell in January this year rather than February, as is more usual, meant that the true picture could be less rosy.
"The real test for China will be February 2012 as the base comparison effect will be really tough," he said.
Buoyant exports to Asia helped to compensate for a lackluster performance in Europe, which saw sales of Swiss watches hit by the region's ongoing debt crisis.
Exports of Switzerland's most famous luxury item to the Chinese mainland rose 32.2 percent to 120.1 million Swiss francs (US$131.4 million) last month, compared with the same period a year earlier, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry said. Hong Kong contributed 291.2 million Swiss francs to global sales in January, up 33.2 percent.
The robust performances of both the mainland and Hong Kong were in line with the 2011 trend and helped the overall value of Swiss watch exports grow 15.5 percent to 1.3 billion Swiss francs in January.
Thomas Mesmin, an analyst at European brokerage CA Chevreux, told Shanghai Daily that sales to China showed "no clear signs of deceleration." Some commentators have expressed fears that growth in China's booming luxury goods industry may be cooling.
Mesmin, however, cautioned that because the Spring Festival fell in January this year rather than February, as is more usual, meant that the true picture could be less rosy.
"The real test for China will be February 2012 as the base comparison effect will be really tough," he said.
Buoyant exports to Asia helped to compensate for a lackluster performance in Europe, which saw sales of Swiss watches hit by the region's ongoing debt crisis.
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