MACAO, October 19 – Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicates that revenue from restaurants and similar establishments surveyed fell 6.3% year-on-year in August 2022, with cafes in local style, congee and noodle shops and western restaurants. registering respective decreases of 13.5% and 10.1%. Meanwhile, sales at surveyed retailers rose 8.4% year-on-year in August, with a notable rise in sales at watch, clock and jewelry retailers (+50.5%) and motor vehicle retailers (+47 .4%); on the other hand, department store sales (-25.0%) fell sharply.
Compared to July, revenue at surveyed restaurants and similar establishments jumped 159.5% in August as the local pandemic situation stabilized. Receipts from Japanese and Korean restaurants (+448.4%), Chinese restaurants (+397.1%) and local-style cafes, congees and noodle shops (+149.9%) showed substantial growth. In addition, sales at surveyed retailers jumped 228.0% month-on-month in August, with sales at leather goods retailers, watch, clock and jewelry retailers and motor vehicle retailers exploding by 1,446.9%, 1,242.0% and 981.8% respectively; on the other hand, only Supermarkets (-23.1%) recorded a decline.
In terms of business expectations for September, 52% of restaurants and similar establishments surveyed expect their revenue to increase month over month in September; the corresponding shares for Chinese restaurants and Western restaurants both reached 59%. In contrast, 15% of establishments surveyed expected revenue to decline month-over-month in September. Meanwhile, half of the retailers surveyed expected monthly sales growth in September, with corresponding shares for watch, clock and jewelry retailers (70%), leather goods retailers (60%), large stores (58%) and Retailers of cosmetics and sanitary ware (55%) exceeding 50%. In contrast, about 15% of retailers surveyed expected lower month-over-month sales in September, and the corresponding proportion for motor vehicle retailers was 55%.
The business outlook index (BOI), which reflects the trend of monthly variations in revenue anticipated by the establishments surveyed, was above 50 for restaurants and similar establishments (68.6) and retail trade (67.9) , indicating that respondents in both industries were expecting better business prospects in September compared to August.
The Restaurant and Similar Establishments and Retail Business Climate Survey sample includes 229 restaurants and similar establishments and 161 retailers, which accounted for 53.5% and 70.6% of industry revenue respectively in 2019. The results of the survey have not been extrapolated. The commercial performance of the reference month is reflected by the evolution of the receipts of the establishments and merchants of the sample of the reference month compared to the month of comparison. The BOI value is between 0 and 100; an index value above 50 implies that the industry has higher trading expectations for the coming month compared to the comparison month, while an index value below 50 indicates the opposite.
