Restaurant receipts down 0.4% to $28.7m in Q2

Receipts of bars, Chinese restaurants and non-Chinese restaurants fell during the quarter.

Total receipts of the restaurant sector in the second quarter dipped 0.4% YoY to $28.7m, reversing Q1’s 3% YoY growth and down from $31.5b in the previous quarter, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD). The provisional estimate of the value of total purchases by restaurants inched up by 0.8% YoY to $9.3b.

Netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total restaurant receipts rose by 2.6% YoY in Q2. On a seasonally adjusted series, total restaurant receipts decreased by 4.6% YoY in value and 4.4% YoY in volume.

Receipts of Chinese restaurants decreased by 2.1% YoY in value and 4.4% YoY in volume; likewise, receipts of non-Chinese restaurants fell by 1.6% YoY in value and 3.7% in volume. Meanwhile, total receipts of bars slipped 4.4% YoY in value and 5.4% in volume.

On the other hand, total receipts of fast food shops rose by 3.2% YoY in value and 1.8% YoY in volume, whilst total receipts of miscellaneous eating and drinking places went up by 5.3% YoY and 1.5% YoY in volume.

Comparing the first half of 2019 with H1 2018, total restaurant receipts increased by 1.4% YoY in value but decreased by 0.9% YoY in volume.

C&SD provisionally estimates that the value of total receipts of the restaurant sector slipped by 0.2%, 0.5% and 0.6% YoY in April, May and June, respectively, compared with the previous year.

Meanwhile, discounting the effect of price changes, C&SD estimated that the volume of total restaurant receipts went down by 2.4%, 2.7% and 2.8% YoY in April, May and June, respectively.