Retailers, restaurants report tough summer for business

Retailers and restaurants have had a tough summer, according to the latest business climate survey conducted by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). The latest report, which was released on Friday, covers the results from July and business owners’ expectations for August, showing that businesses in these two sectors experienced either stable or subdued performance over the mid-summer month.
In the restaurant sector, the proportion of establishments interviewed reporting a year-on-year rise in revenue in July fell 6 percentage points compared with a month earlier, to just 34%. Meanwhile, 31% of establishments interviewed recorded a year-on-year decline, a decrease of 4 percentage points from June.
The same respondents said they expected more positive business performance in August. Some 73% anticipated a year-on-year rise in revenue or steady business performance, a similar proportion of the expectations expressed a month earlier. Twenty-seven percent of the establishments interviewed, the same proportion as last month, predicted a year-on-year decline in revenue.
As for the retail sector, sales performance held relatively stable in July, according to DSEC.
On the one hand, the proportion of interviewed retailers reporting a year-on-year decline in sales dropped by a notable 10 percentage points from June to 35%. However, at the same time, the proportion of retailers registering a sales increase declined by 1 percentage point from June to 37%. Some 28% of retailers recorded steady year-on-year business, a 10 percentage point increase from the preceding month.
Retailers expected their business to slacken in August, with 38% of them anticipating their sales would decrease year-on-year, 6 percentage points more than those who held the same expectations in July. Meanwhile, the proportion of retailers interviewed predicting a year-on-year sales increase dropped by 5 percentage points from July to 17%.
The business climate survey is compiled based on the value of receipts of the interviewed establishments, which are comprised of 186 restaurants and similar establishments (accounting for 53% of the industry’s receipts) and 136 retailers (accounting for 70% of the industry’s receipts).
DSEC advises that the survey results were not extrapolated and only reflect the assessment of the business performance and expectations of the sample restaurants and retailers. DB