MACAO, April 20 – Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicates that revenue from restaurants and similar establishments surveyed fell 5.3% year-on-year in February 2022, Western restaurants, Chinese restaurants and Japanese and Korean restaurants recorded respective declines of 8.5%, 7.7% and 7.2%. Meanwhile, sales at surveyed retailers rose 29.7% year-on-year in February; Retailers of watches, clocks and jewelry (+49.3%), department stores (+41.1%) and retailers of leather goods (+37.8%) recorded notable sales growth while auto retailers (-22.5%) recorded a marked decline.
Compared to January, the receipts of restaurants & similar surveyed increased by 1.7% in February; revenue from Chinese restaurants increased by 9.4% while revenue from local style cafes, Congee & Noodle Shops fell by 6.5%. Additionally, sales at surveyed retailers edged down 0.8% month-on-month in February; Supermarkets and auto retailers saw their sales decrease by 26.6% and 16.5% respectively, while watch, clock and jewelry retailers saw their sales increase by 17.3%.
In terms of business expectations for March, 53% of restaurants and similar establishments surveyed expected their revenue to decline month-on-month; the corresponding share for Chinese restaurants reached 81%. Meanwhile, 18% of establishments surveyed expected their revenue to increase month-over-month in March, and the corresponding proportion for local-style cafes, congee and noodle shops was 34%. On the other hand, 43% of retailers surveyed expected month-over-month sales to decline in March, with corresponding shares for leather goods retailers (60%), department stores (58%) and adult clothing (52%). ) exceeding 50%. In addition, 20% of retailers surveyed anticipated an increase in month-over-month sales in March, and the corresponding proportion for motor vehicle retailers was 64%.
The business outlook index (BOI), which reflects the trend of monthly variations in revenue anticipated by the establishments surveyed, was below 50 for restaurants and similar establishments (32.5) and retail trade (38.8) , indicating that respondents in both industries expected a less favorable business outlook in March compared to February.
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.
