Hong Kong retail sales worse than expected in November

Hong Kong’s retail sales by value declined for a ninth consecutive month in November, falling by a worse-than-expected 7.8% from a year earlier as inbound tourism slowed further, the Census and Statistics Department said Monday.

The decline deepened from October’s 3.0% fall, and was more severe than the median forecast of a 6.5% decrease from three economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.

Hong Kong’s 2015 retail sales are expected to suffer their biggest annual decline since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003. Retail sales by value for January-November fell 3.1% from a year earlier, steeper than the 2.3% decline recorded in 2003 when tourists shunned Hong Kong for several months during the SARS outbreak.

Hong Kong’s retail sales by volume fell 6.0% in November from a year earlier, reversing October’s 1.2% rise, and worse than the survey’s median forecast of a 3.2% contraction.

A government spokesman said retail sales dropped amid weak tourism. “The increased downside risks to the economic outlook and recent stock market corrections might also have resulted in more cautious local consumption sentiment,” the spokesman added.