Hongkong'S Retail Sales Fell For 8 Consecutive Months And Suffered "Cold Winter".

Despite repeated attempts to winter in the south, Hongkong's retail industry has already entered the "cold winter".

A number of data show that retail industry as one of Hongkong's economic pillars is going through a hard time.

Data from Hongkong Statistics Bureau, Tourism Development Bureau and HKEx show that Hongkong's retail sales have declined for 8 consecutive months, and the number of visitors to Hong Kong has decreased for 5 consecutive months.

Recent interim reports released by a number of Retail Listed Companies in Hongkong also show that with the slow development of Hongkong's economy and tourism and the rise of cross-border electricity providers,

Operating revenues and profits have declined significantly.

In the latest round of interim results and three quarter results, jewellery watches, department stores,

Half year's performance of retailers, cosmetics and other categories decreased to varying degrees.

Take cosmetics retailer Sasa international as an example. At the end of last month, Sasa International announced its interim results. In the 6 months ended September 30, 2015, group net profit fell by 55% to HK $153 million, and turnover declined by 10.6% to HK $3 billion 780 million.

Sasa International said that this was due to the decrease in the number of pactions and the average paction amount of the mainland passengers, and also related to the decrease in the number of visitors to the mainland.

Coincidentally, Hongkong jewelry retailer Zhou Dafu's medium term profits also declined sharply.

According to Zhou Dafu's latest financial report, as of the end of September this year, 6 months, the turnover of Zhou Dafu was HK $28 billion 124 million, a decrease of 4.1% over the same period last year, which accounted for 40.8% of the company's Hong Kong and Macao business downturn, leading to a significant decline in net profit of 42.4%.

The half year net profit of jewellery retailer's Lufu group fell 42.4% year-on-year at the end of September this year, while another jewelry retailer Xie Ruilin's half year net profit as at the end of August was 40.16% lower than that of last year.

L'OCCITANE's profit for the half year ended September also dropped by 47%.

It is worth noting that as of October, Hongkong's retail sales have declined for eight consecutive months.

The latest statistics released by the Hongkong Statistics Bureau show that the total retail sales in Hongkong in October were estimated to be about 37 billion 200 million Hong Kong dollars, down 3% from the same period last year.

Total retail sales in the first 10 months of this year dropped by 2.7% compared to the same period last year.

However, compared with the statistics in September, the decline in total retail sales in October narrowed.

According to the latest statistics from the Hongkong tourism board, about 5 million 73 thousand and 500 visitors in October, down 2.7% from the same period last year, are the fifth consecutive month of decline this year.

Among them, the number of passengers in the mainland dropped by 4.2%.

A spokesman for the Hongkong Special Administrative Region government estimated that the future of Hongkong's retail industry will continue to be constrained by the sluggish performance of the inbound tourism industry.