Owing to the lingering impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments dropped by 71.4 percent year-on-year in July 2022. Business outlook remains challenging.
Sales of the interviewed retailers plunged by 82.0 percent year-on-year in July, data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicates.Â
Leather Goods Retailers (-96.3 percent), Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers (-95.6 percent), Department Stores (-93.8 percent) and Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers (-91.3 percent) all posted a decline of over 90 percent in sales, while Supermarkets (+28.7 percent) registered an increase.
Receipts of Chinese Restaurants and Japanese & Korean Restaurants fell by 85.6 percent and 83.1 percent, respectively.
In comparison with June, receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments went down by 52.5 percent in July; receipts of Chinese Restaurants and Japanese & Korean Restaurants declined by 73.0 percent and 71.7 percent, respectively.
Sales of the interviewed retailers decreased by 66.4 percent month-on-month in July; Leather Goods Retailers (-93.2 percent), Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers (-90.2 percent), Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers (-83.1 percent) and Department Stores (-82.4 percent) showed a notable drop in sales, while Supermarkets (+8.2 percent) recorded a rise.
As regards the business expectations for August, most of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments and retailers anticipated a month-on-month increase in receipts as no new infection cases were found in the community at the end of July.
On the other hand, around 13 percent of the interviewed establishments predicted that their receipts would decrease month-on-month in August.
Meanwhile, 78 percent of the interviewed retailers forecasted a month-on-month sales growth in August.
All of the interviewed Motor Vehicle Retailers and Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers anticipated a rise in sales in August, and the corresponding share for Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers stood at 91 percent.
By contrast, 6 percent of the interviewed retailers expected a month-on-month sales drop in August, and the corresponding proportion for Supermarkets (44 percent) was the highest.
The Business Outlook Index (BOI) that reflects the trend of month-on-month changes in receipts anticipated by the interviewed establishments was higher than 50 for both restaurants & similar establishments (83.3) and retail trade (85.8), indicating that the respondents from both industries expected a better business outlook in August compared to July.
The sample of the Business Climate Survey on Restaurants & Similar Establishments and Retail Trade comprises 229 restaurants & similar establishments and 161 retailers, which accounted for 53.5 percent and 70.6 percent of the respective industry’s receipts in 2019.
The Survey results were not extrapolated. The business performance in the reference month is reflected by the change in the receipts of the sampled establishments and retailers in the reference month as against the month of comparison.
