Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the business of restaurants & similar establishments and retailers showed a slight improvement in August 2020. There were 24% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments recording a year-on-year rise in receipts or steady performance in August, an increase of 6 percentage points from July. The corresponding proportions of Local Style Cafes, Congee & Noodle Shops (36%) and Japanese & Korean Restaurants (32%) rose by 12 percentage points and 5 percentage points respectively. On the other hand, the share of interviewed establishments reporting a year-on-year decline in receipts in August dropped by 6 percentage points from July to 76%; the proportion of Western Restaurants showing a year-on-year decline of fifty percent or more in receipts fell by 7 percentage points.

As regards retail trade, 21% of the interviewed retailers registered a year-on-year sales rise or steady performance in August, a growth of 5 percentage points from the preceding month. The corresponding proportion of Motor Vehicle Retailers (67%) surged by 45 percentage points. Meanwhile, the proportion of interviewed retailers reporting a year-on-year sales decrease went down by 5 percentage points from July to 79%, with the corresponding proportion of Cosmetics & Sanitary Articles Retailers (80%) falling by 20 percentage points.

There were 80% of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expecting their receipts to decline year-on-year in September, up by 3 percentage points from August; the corresponding shares of Chinese Restaurants (94%) and Western Restaurants (91%) increased by 8 percentage points and 6 percentage points respectively, while the proportion of Japanese & Korean Restaurants (58%) dropped by 11 percentage points.

Retailers anticipated no significant change in their business in September, with 76% of them predicting that their sales would decrease year-on-year, down by 1 percentage point from August. The corresponding proportions of Motor Vehicle Retailers (33%) and Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers (89%) decreased by 22 percentage points and 11 percentage points respectively from the preceding month, whereas the share of Department Stores (82%) rose by 9 percentage points.

The sample of the Business Climate Survey on Restaurants & Similar Establishments and Retail Trade was selected based on the value of receipts of the establishments, which comprises 188 restaurants & similar establishments and 135 retailers that accounted for 50% and 65% of the respective industry’s receipts in 2018. The Survey results were not extrapolated and only reflect the assessment of the business performance and expectations of the sample restaurants and retailers.