HK's total retail sales value down 3.1 pct in July

The value of total retail sales in July 2014, provisionally estimated at 38.7 billion HK dollars, decreased by 3.1 percent over a year earlier, the Census & Statistics Department announced Thursday.

The department released the latest figures on retail sales, saying for the first seven months of 2014, total retail sales decreased by 1.5 percent in value over the same period a year earlier.

After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales in July 2014 decreased by 4.5 percent over a year earlier.

For the first seven months of 2014, total retail sales decreased by 1.5 percent in volume over the same period a year earlier. (1 U.S. dollar = 7.75 HK dollars)