HONG KONG, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- The value of total retail sales of Hong Kong in July was provisionally estimated at 34.4 billion HK dollars (about 4.38 billion U.S. dollars), down 11.4 percent compared with the same month a year ago, the Census & Statistics Department of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government announced on Friday.

File photo: VCG

After netting out the effect of price changes over the period, the volume of total retail sales decreased by 13 percent year-on-year.

The value of sales of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts fell 24.4 percent. Sales of wearing apparel fell 13 percent in value, while sales of medicines and cosmetics were down 16.1 percent. Sales of commodities in department stores fell 10.4 percent.

The sales value of commodities in supermarkets went up 1 percent.

A spokesperson for the SAR government said that retail sales worsened further to post a double-digit year-on-year fall in July, reflecting the weak local consumer sentiment and significant disruptions to inbound tourism and consumption-related activities arising from the recent local social incidents.

The situation may even deteriorate further if the social incidents involving violence do not stop, the spokesperson said, adding that the SAR government will closely monitor the situation. Enditem