10
Provisional statistics of retail sales for May released
The value of total retail sales in May 1996, estimated at $17.8 billion, increased by 5% when compared with May 1995, according to the provisional figures released today (Thursday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
After discounting the effect of price changes over the period, total retail sales showed virtually no change in volume.
Compared with a year ago, sales of motor vehicles increased by 10% in value and 9% in volume. This is consecutively the third month where year-on-year growth in volume terms has been registered since July 1994.
Concurrently, sales of some other commodities also recorded increases in both value and volume terms. These included miscellaneous consumer goods (8% in value and 3% in volume); food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (8% in value and 3% in volume); consumer durable goods other than motor vehicles (3% in value and 2% in volume); and clothing and footwear (9% in value and 1% in volume). Sales in supermarkets also went up by 9% in value and 3% in volume,
On the other hand, sales of fuels registered virtually no change in value but declined by 8% in volume. Sales in department stores and sales of jewellery, watches and clocks and valuable gifts both went down by 3% in value. In volume terms, their respective decreases were 8% and 5%.
Compared with April 1996 (but bearing in mind that this comparison is affected by seasonal factors), total retail sales in May 1996 increased by 6% in value and 5% in volume.
Comparing the period from January to May 1996 with the same period in 1995, total retail sales rose by 5% in value and 0.3% in volume.
The volume of retail sales is derived from the value of retail sales after adjusting for price changes. The relevant components of the consumer price index are used as deflators.
Table 1 presents the revised total retail sales figure for April 1996 and the provisional figure for May 1996.