Restaurant Receipts Dip 14.3%

The value of total receipts of the restaurants sector in the fourth quarter of 2019, provisionally estimated at $26 billion, fell 14.3% year-on-year, the Census & Statistics Department announced today.

The provisional value of total purchases by restaurants decreased 13% to $8.4 billion.

After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total restaurant receipts dropped 16% year-on-year.

Analysed by type of restaurant, total receipts of Chinese restaurants decreased 19.2% in value and 21.1% in volume.

Total receipts of non-Chinese restaurants fell 15.1% in value and 16.6% in volume, while total receipts of fast food shops decreased 3.7% in value and 4.9% in volume.

Total receipts for bars dropped 14.5% in value and 17.4% in volume. Total receipts of miscellaneous eating and drinking places decreased 8.2% in value and 10.6% in volume.

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter comparison, the value of total restaurant receipts decreased 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with the preceding quarter, while the volume of total restaurant receipts dropped 3.4%.

For 2019 as a whole, the provisional value of total receipts of the restaurants sector was $112.5 billion, a decrease of 5.9% in value and 8% in volume compared with 2018.

Over the same period, the provisional value of total purchases by restaurants fell 5.1% to $36.1 billion.

The Government noted that the 14.3% plunge in the value of total restaurant receipts in the fourth quarter from a year earlier marks the largest fall since the outbreak of SARS in the second quarter of 2003, as local social incidents with intensified violence caused severe disruptions to food and beverage businesses.

For 2019 as a whole, total restaurant receipts declined by 5.9%, the first annual decline since 2003.

The Government said the food and beverage sector has been facing an even more difficult business environment recently due to the threat of the novel coronavirus, with the outlook depending critically on how the situation will evolve, adding that it will continue to monitor the developments closely.