Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments and retailers showed a year-on-year decrease in January 2024 due to a high comparison base in the same month last year when the Lunar New Year, the period when business is usually brisk, took place. Receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments went down by 10.2% year-on-year, with receipts of Japanese & Korean Restaurants and Chinese Restaurants dropping by 30.6% and 21.7% respectively; by contrast, receipts of Local Style Cafes, Congee & Noodle Shops rose by 12.9%. Meanwhile, sales of the interviewed retailers fell by 29.3% year-on-year in January; sales of Adults' Clothing Retailers, Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers and Department Stores declined by 36.8%, 34.2% and 30.6% respectively, while sales of Motor Vehicle Retailers grew by 37.3%.

In comparison with December 2023, receipts of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments decreased by 2.7% in January 2024, with a notable drop in the receipts of Western Restaurants (-14.4%). In addition, sales of the interviewed retailers dropped by 5.9% month-on-month in January; sales of Department Stores, Motor Vehicle Retailers and Adults' Clothing Retailers fell by 15.8%, 13.8% and 12.6% respectively, whereas sales of Supermarkets increased by 15.2%.

As regards the business expectations for February, over half of the interviewed restaurants & similar establishments expecting their receipts to increase month-on-month on account of the Lunar New Year, and the corresponding shares for Chinese Restaurants and Western Restaurants reached 72% and 56% respectively. On the other hand, about 23% of the interviewed establishments predicted that their receipts would decrease month-on-month in February. For retail trade, there were 44% of the interviewed retailers expecting a  month-on-month sales growth in February, with the corresponding shares for Leather Goods Retailers (80%), Watches, Clocks & Jewellery Retailers (61%) and Department Stores (58%) exceeding 50%. By contrast, around 25% of the interviewed retailers anticipated a month-on-month sales drop in February, and the corresponding proportions for Supermarkets and Motor Vehicle Retailers stood at 67% and 55% respectively.

The Business Outlook Index (BOI) that reflects the trend of month-on-month changes in receipts anticipated by the interviewed establishments was higher than 50 for both restaurants & similar establishments (64.5) and retail trade (59.6), indicating that the respondents from both industries expected a better business outlook in February compared to January.

The sample of the Business Climate Survey on Restaurants & Similar Establishments and Retail Trade comprises 229 restaurants & similar establishments and 161 retailers, which accounted for 53.5% and 70.6% of the respective industry’s receipts in 2019. The Survey results were not extrapolated. As a panel sample of establishments is used in this Survey, the changes in receipts in the reference month as compared to the month of comparison serve as reference indicators of the business performance of restaurants & similar establishments and retailers. The value of the BOI ranges between 0 and 100; an index value above 50 implies that the industry has higher business expectations for the coming month as against the reference month, whereas an index value below 50 indicates the opposite.