MACAO, December 17 – Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the activity of restaurants and similar establishments and the retail trade slowed in October 2021, attributable to cases of coronavirus infection linked for imports reported between late September and early October. 76% of restaurants and similar establishments surveyed posted year-over-year revenue decline in October, up 43 percentage points from September; the corresponding proportions of Chinese restaurants (86%), Western restaurants (77%), and Japanese and Korean restaurants (77%) increased by 64 percentage points, 46 percentage points and 23 percentage points respectively. At the same time, the proportion of surveyed retailers seeing year-over-year sales decline in October rose 53 percentage points from the previous month to 78%. All of the Leather Goods and Cosmetics & Sanitary Goods retailers surveyed recorded a year-over-year drop in sales. In addition, the corresponding shares of watch, clock and jewelry retailers (86%), department stores (83%) and adult clothing retailers (86%) increased by 69 percentage points, 67 percentage points and 66 percentage points respectively compared to September, while the share of supermarkets (22%) fell by 22 percentage points. For the business performance index (CPI) which reflects the trend of annual changes in business revenue, the values of restaurants and similar establishments (17.4) and retail trade (19.4) were both below 50, which implies that the performance of companies in these two industries in October was less satisfactory compared to the same month last year.
When it comes to business expectations for November, the proportion of restaurants and similar establishments surveyed expecting a monthly increase in their revenue rose 49 percentage points from October to 51%, as the pandemic grew. is gradually reduced at the end of October. The corresponding shares of Chinese restaurants (62%) and Western restaurants (46%) increased by 62 percentage points and 39 percentage points respectively. Meanwhile, 55% of retailers surveyed expected month-over-month sales to increase in November, up 36 percentage points from the previous month. The corresponding proportions of watch, clock and jewelry retailers (73%) and cosmetics and sanitary ware retailers (73%) jumped by 60 and 55 percentage points, respectively. The Business Outlook Index (BOI), which reflects the trend of monthly variations in revenue anticipated by the establishments surveyed, was above 50 for both restaurants and similar establishments (68.1) and retail trade (71.2 ), indicating that respondents from both industries predicted better business prospects in November than in October.
The Business Climate Survey of Restaurants and Similar Establishments and Retailing sample includes 229 restaurants and similar establishments and 161 retailers, which accounted for 53.5% and 70.6% of industry revenue. respective in 2019. The values of the BPI and the BOI range between 0 and 100; an index value greater than 50 implies that the industry has better business performance in the reference month or higher business expectations for the coming month compared to the comparison month, whereas an index value less than 50 indicates the opposite. The survey results have not been extrapolated and only reflect the assessment of the business performance and expectations of the restaurants and retailers in the sample.
