Hong Kong retail sales to recover further driven by increase tourists from mainland China – JPMorgan
MACRO VIEWS & ANALYSIS
Hong Kong retail sales to recover further driven by increase tourists from mainland China – JPMorgan
MACRO VIEWS & ANALYSIS

Hong Kong retail sales to recover further driven by increase tourists from mainland China – JPMorgan

 

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Hong Kong’s retail sales in March grew by 39.4% year-on-year, exceeding expectations, and after seasonal adjustment, the month-on-month growth picked up to 6% from 3.6% in February, with the seasonally adjusted retail sales volume recovering to the level in December 2019 for the first time since the pandemic, said JPMorgan in a note. 

Retail sales for the first three months grew by 22.3% from a year earlier, accelerating from 0.4% growth in the previous quarter, driven by private consumption which grew 12.5% year-on-year in the first quarter, consistent with Hong Kong’s GDP data. 

The stable recovery of retail sales is mainly due to the increase in mainland Chinese tourists since the resumption of cross-border travel, with the average daily number of mainland Chinese tourists at about 63,400, equivalent to about 45.4% of the pre-pandemic level in 2018, the report said, adding that the average daily number of mainland Chinese tourists in April rising by 21% from March.

Hotel occupancy rate in March increased by 6 percentage points to 84%, and the average hotel room rate rose by 18.7% from the previous month. 

For the full year, the bank expects Hong Kong’s consumer spending to increase by 5.5%, contributing 4.5 percentage points to the predicted GDP growth of 5.4%, it said.