XN000022-1997-02-28 — Page 14

12 -

Compared with November 1996 (but bearing in mind that this comparison is affected by seasonal factors), total retail sales in December 1996 increased by 20% in both value and volume terms.

For 1996 as a whole, total retail sales improved both in value and volume terms. Sales of most commodities registered increases by various degrees in 1996.

These included consumer durable goods other than motor vehicles (7% in value and 6% in volume); miscellaneous consumer goods (11% in value and 5% in volume); food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (6% in value and 2% in volume); clothing and footwear (9% in value and 1% in volume); motor vehicles (1% in value and 0.3% in volume) and jewellery, watches and clocks and valuable gifts (3% in value and 0.1% in volume). Sales in supermarkets also went up by 8% in value and 1% in volume.

On the other hand, sales in department stores registered an increase of 4% in value, but a decrease of 1% in volume. Besides, sales of fuels recorded a decrease of 2% in value and 8% in volume. The decline was largely due to the continued shift from retail purchases to direct purchases from major fuels suppliers.

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 November 1996 and the provisional figure for December 1996.

Table 2 shows the value and volume indices of retail sales in December 1995, November and December 1996 for all retail outlets and by type of retail outlets, with average retail sales from October 1994 to September 1995 taken as 100. Comparisons of the December 1996 results with those for November 1996 and those for December 1995, as well as comparisons of retail sales in the period from January to December of 1996 with the same period in 1995 are also given.

The report containing the analysis of the December 1996 results is now on sale at $4.00 per copy at the Government Publications Centre, Queensway Government Offices, G/F., Low Block, 66 Queensway; and the Publications Unit of the Census and Statistics Department, 19/F., Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai.

Enquiries about the survey results may be directed to the Wholesale and Retail Trade Statistics Section of the Census and Statistics Department (Tel. No.: 2802 1258).