Retail Sales Index – February 2023

March 23, 2023

On a year-on-year basis, retail sales increased 12.7% in February 2023, reversing the 0.8% decline in January 2023. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose 11.7%, following the 2.1% increase in January 2023. The year-on-year increase in retail sales was partly attributed to a lower base, as some shops were not open during the Chinese New Year (CNY) public holidays on 1-2 February 2022. CNY was celebrated in end January this year. Comparing the performance for the two-month period (January to February) of festivities, retail sales registered a year-on-year growth of 4.9%. On a seasonally adjusted basis, retail sales increased 3.9% in February 2023 over the previous month. Excluding motor vehicles, seasonally adjusted retail sales increased 2.0% compared to January 2023.

The estimated total retail sales value in February 2023 was $3.6 billion. Of this, online retail sales made up an estimated 12.4%, higher than the 11.4% recorded in January 2023. Excluding motor vehicles, the total retail sales value was about $3.1 billion, of which 14.2% came from online retail sales. Online retail sales of the Computer & Telecommunications Equipment, Furniture & Household Equipment and Supermarkets & Hypermarkets industries made up 46.4%, 29.8% and 13.4% of the total sales of their respective industry. Click here to read more.