The value of Macau’s retail sales fell 61.3 percent year-on-year in the second quarter to 6.92 billion amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced yesterday.
A DSEC statement underlined that after removing the effect of price changes, the sales volume index dropped 61.5 percent.
Among the major retail trade activities, the sales value of watches, clocks and jewellery (-87.3 percent), leather goods (-72.8 percent), goods sold in department stores (-71.7 percent) and adults’ clothing (-71.2 percent) suffered “relatively large year-on-year declines”, the statement said, adding that the sales value of goods in supermarkets (+13.7%) increased.
In addition, the sales value of furniture & lighting rose by 91.3 percent “attributable to the opening of a large retail establishment in the second quarter,” the statement said without identifying the company. Sweden’s mega-retail operator IKEA opened its first fully-fledged store in Macau in the second quarter.
As regards the volume of retail sales, the sales volume indices of watches, clocks and jewellery (-89.0 percent), leather goods (-72.2 percent), goods sold in department stores (-70.2 percent) and adults’ clothing (-67.3 percent) decreased year-on-year, whereas the index of goods sold in supermarkets (+12.7 percent) recorded two-digit growth.
For the first half year of this year, the value of retail sales dropped 52.8 percent year-on-year to 18.08 billion patacas, while the sales volume index fell 52.7 percent.
Sales volume is the number of units sold within a reporting period. Sales value is the amount of money received for something sold.
A total of 72.1 percent of the retailers surveyed by the bureau said they anticipated a year-on-year decrease in their sales volume in the third quarter, 20.2 percent expected the sales volume to stay stable and 7.7 percent forecast an increase. Meanwhile, 76.7 percent of the retailers predicted that retail prices would remain steady year-on-year in the third quarter, 18.5 percent forecast a decrease and 4.8 percent expected an increase. As compared with the second quarter, 51.6 percent forecast sluggish business in the third quarter, whereas retailers expecting a stable performance (28.0 percent) and those anticipating a favourable outlook (20.4 percent) together accounted for 48.4 percent of the total.
