Hong Kong restaurant takings fall 26 per cent as Covid-19 bites
- More than HK$7 billion wiped off restaurant receipts for April to June compared with same period last year
- Government says decline is less severe than in previous quarter but hints worse is to come
Restaurant takings for the second quarter have dropped 26 per cent on last year as Hong Kong’s food and catering sector feels the squeeze from the impact of Covid-19.
The Census and Statistics Department revealed on Monday that receipts shrank from HK$28.6 billion (US$3.7 billion) to HK$21.2 billion between April and June year-on-year.
A government spokesman said the decline was lower than the record fall registered in the first quarter due to the severity of the health crisis easing and the subsequent relaxation of social-distancing measures in May and June.
“The business environment of the food and beverage sector is expected to be highly challenging in the near term as social-distancing measures have been tightened again of late in response to the surge in local infections since July,” he said.
Spending by restaurants experienced a similar drop of 24.7 per cent to HK$7 billion, the official figures revealed.
Restaurant receipts hit an all-time trough in the first quarter of this year, down 31.3 per cent year-on-year to HK$21.62 billion, a record since quarterly performance figures started in the fourth quarter of 2004.
