Restaurants, retailers report business improvement in Nov

Around 36 percent of interviewed restaurants and similar establishments reported a year-on-year growth in receipts in November 2018, according to the latest business climate survey. The survey, conducted by the Statistics and Census Service, also indicated that 44 percent of interviewed retailers saw an increase in business during November, representing a 3-percentage-point rise from October.

Meanwhile, 30 percent of restaurants and 38 percent of retailers reported a year-on-year decline, representing a decrease of  9 percentage points and increase of 5 percentage points, month-to-month respectively. The remaining establishments from both industries noted effectively no change to their businesses from the previous month.

At the time of the survey, over half of the sampled restaurants expected their business to hold steady year-on-year in December 2018, up 3 percentage points from the proportion who held the same expectations for the month of November. Twenty-seven percent expected a year-on-year decline in receipts, down by 6 percentage points from November.

Retailers were slightly more cautious about their business prospects for December than restaurants. Just under half expected their revenue to be in line with the same month in the previous year, while 30 percent anticipated a year-on-year sales decrease, up 2 percentage points from November.

The survey’s sample comprises 186 restaurants (accounting for 53 percent of industry’s receipts) and 136 retailers (accounting for 70 percent of the industry’s receipts).