Hong Kong's March retail sales growth slowed to 9.8%

Even Mainland visitor arrivals were sluggish.

According to Barclays, Hong Kong retail sales were +9.8% y/y in March by value, slower than the +15.8% y/y growth seen in Jan/Feb combined, and was more in line with the c9% growth rates seen in Nov and Dec. 

By value, March retail sales were +10.2% y/y. The major categories causing the slowdown in the headline number were food, alcohol and tobacco, and consumer durables.

Here's more from Barclays:

Mainland visitor arrivals were just +14% y/y in March, after a very strong January/February period which saw growth of +23% y/y.

The slowdown was driven by a slowdown in same-day visitor growth. Same-day visitor arrivals slowed to +15% y/y, vs at least 30% y/y growth seen in the past few months. Overnight visitors were +12% y/y, however, in line with the previous months’ trends.

While there has been scarce official figures on Golden Week retail sales, we believe the only category that has seen acceleration in volumes is gold and jewellery, with increased demand from gold price drop. Outside of that, according to our channel checks, luxury stores might see slower sales growth.

Lifestyle (1212 HK; EW) also indicated that they saw no surprise during Golden Week and that sales are in line with their expectations for mid-to-high single digit growth.