Aug. 3, 2012 (China Knowledge) - The value of total retail sales in Hong Kong grew 11.0% YoY to HK$34.8 billion in June this year, according to statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department.

The growth in retail sales was higher than the revised increase of 8.7% in May when retails sales stood at HK$36.0 billion, due to resilient local consumption demand and to a rapid increase in visitor arrivals in the month.

Netting out the effect of price changes, sales volume grew 8.5% YoY in June, after rising 5.7% in May.  

In June, the retail sales volume of miscellaneous durable consumer goods experienced the biggest rise, up 103.3% YoY, followed by a 40.4% surge in the sales volume of motor vehicles, 23.5% increase in electrical goods and photographic equipment, 10.6% increase in footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories, 8.7% increase in commodities in supermarkets and an 8.0% increase in wearing apparel.

However, the volume of sales of furniture and fixtures fell 8.2% in June, followed by a 3.1% decrease in sales of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts and a 2.2% decrease in fuels.

In the first six months of this year, Hong Kong's total retail sales rose 13.1% in value or 9.0% in volume compared with the same period in 2011.