Tourism, wages sustain HK retail sales
Source: Bloomberg News |
July 5, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HONG Kong's retail sales growth topped 25 percent for the third straight month, boosted by tourism spending and rising wages.
Sales jumped 27.8 percent from a year earlier to HK$33.1 billion (US$4.3 billion), the government said yesterday on its website.
That compared with a revised 27.8 percent gain in April and the median 27.7 percent estimate of nine economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
Unemployment at near a 30-month low and a boom in visitors from China are helping sustain consumption in an economy that may grow by as much as 6 percent this year. At the same time, surging property prices and inflation at an almost three-year high may damp consumer spending.
"The sustained strength of mainland visitor arrivals, topping 2 million every month, offers critical support," Donna Kwok, a Hong Kong-based economist at HSBC Holdings Plc, said before yesterday's report. "At the same time, wage growth is helping to counterbalance the erosive impact of rising prices on household spending."
Visitors from China jumped 23 percent in May from a year earlier to 2.1 million, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Wages climbed about 7 percent in April from a year earlier, the government said in May. Consumer demand "should continue to underpin growth as consumers are still in spending mode supported by growing income and better job prospects," said Hang Seng Bank Ltd economists Irina Fan and Joanne Yim.
Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd, the city's biggest cosmetics retailer, plans to add at least 11 more stores in Hong Kong and Macau by March 2012, to tap into demand from Chinese mainland tourists.
Sales jumped 27.8 percent from a year earlier to HK$33.1 billion (US$4.3 billion), the government said yesterday on its website.
That compared with a revised 27.8 percent gain in April and the median 27.7 percent estimate of nine economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
Unemployment at near a 30-month low and a boom in visitors from China are helping sustain consumption in an economy that may grow by as much as 6 percent this year. At the same time, surging property prices and inflation at an almost three-year high may damp consumer spending.
"The sustained strength of mainland visitor arrivals, topping 2 million every month, offers critical support," Donna Kwok, a Hong Kong-based economist at HSBC Holdings Plc, said before yesterday's report. "At the same time, wage growth is helping to counterbalance the erosive impact of rising prices on household spending."
Visitors from China jumped 23 percent in May from a year earlier to 2.1 million, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Wages climbed about 7 percent in April from a year earlier, the government said in May. Consumer demand "should continue to underpin growth as consumers are still in spending mode supported by growing income and better job prospects," said Hang Seng Bank Ltd economists Irina Fan and Joanne Yim.
Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd, the city's biggest cosmetics retailer, plans to add at least 11 more stores in Hong Kong and Macau by March 2012, to tap into demand from Chinese mainland tourists.
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