Macau retail sales rose by 63.5 percent year-on-year to 73.96 billion patacas last year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) said yesterday.
A DSEC statement pointed out that the figure represented a “mere drop” of 4.2 percent from the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when retail sales amounted to 77.19 billion patacas.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020.
The statement pointed out that the year-on-year growth in retail sales last year was mainly driven by an increase in the sales of communication equipment (+128.7 percent), watches and jewellery (+126.6 percent), leather goods (+111.0 percent) and department stores (+81.8 percent). However, supermarket sales declined by 2.0 percent.
In the fourth quarter of last year, retail sales rose by 1.7 percent year-on-year to 18.50 billion.
