Hong Kong retail sales rose by 6.6 percent year on year in December by value to HK$35 billion, buoyed by more online transactions and a stronger showing by the jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts segment.

That is up from the revised 6.5 percent growth recorded in November.

The Census and Statistics Department said on Tuesday that online sales soared by nearly 31 percent to HK$3.1 billion.

Internet purchases accounted for 8.8 percent of the month's total retail sales.

Sales of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts jumped by 14.3 percent to HK$5.3 billion.

Electrical and consumer durable goods soared 59 percent to HK$4.5 billion, while gains for consumer goods that did not come under other classifications also rose by 7.5 percent to HK$4.9 billion.

The chairwoman of the Retail Management Association, Annie Yau Tse, said December was traditionally a strong month consumption-wise and the month's figures were strong in part because the base figure from 2024 was relatively low.

For this year, she said she expected the retail sector to stabilise and trend positively.

"Provided that there's no unexpected external factors that will affect the sales, the ambience or the sentiment, I'd say that the market will grow in a mild way, not in a significant way," she said in an online press conference.

"But things will stabilise, sometimes we can achieve single-digit growth, and sometimes it may be flat, depending on the base figure from last year."

Retail categories related to tourism should perform well, she said, citing cosmetics and medicines as examples.

"The value of retail sales continued to recover solidly in December," a government spokesman said in a statement.

"For 2025 as a whole, total retail sales value resumed modest growth."

The total value of retail sales rose by 1 percent last year to more than HK$380.5 billion.

The spokesman said that going forward, improving local consumption sentiment underpinned by robust economic growth momentum, along with continued vibrant growth in inbound visitors, would continue to be favourable to retail businesses.
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Last updated: 2026-02-03 HKT 18:24