The proportion of local restaurants and similar establishments that reported a year-on-year growth in receipts in the month of August when Typhoon Hato hit, dropped by 8 percentage points month-on-month, down to 32 per cent. The value is the lowest recorded since November of last year.
For local style cafes and congee and noodle shops, 18.4 per cent of respondents indicated they had seen an increase in receipts in August, a fall of 20 percentage points month-on-month. There was a 12.5 percentage point increase of businesses in this sector that reported experiencing a decrease in receipts during the month. Meanwhile, 43.8 per cent of respondents of Japanese and Korean restaurants saw increases in revenue, a 19 percentage point increase month-on-month.
Of the respondents, 46.2 per cent claimed to have experienced a year-on-year decline in receipts during August, an increase of 11 percentage points when compared to July.
In the wake of the super typhoon and the summer holidays, the interviewed restaurants and similar establishments demonstrated less confidence in their business outlook for September, with just 21 per cent expressing optimism about the performance, a drop of 11 percentage points.
In fact, the proportion of estaÂblishÂments anticipating a year-on-year decline in receipts for September increased by 9 percentage points to 48 per cent.
Typhoon also hit retail trade
Similarly, the proportion of retailers who claimed they had seen a year-on-year increase in their business performance in the month of August declined by 8 percentage points, down to 40.8 per cent.
For retailers selling motor vehicles, 33 per cent said they had registered increases, while for watches, clocks and jewellery the proportion was 44.4 per cent and for leather goods it was 80 per cent, drops of 33, 28 and 20 percentage points month-on-month, respectively.
Meanwhile, 66.7 per cent of supermarkets revealed that sales had increased in August, up 22 percentage points compared to the previous month.
On the other hand, 40.5 per cent of interviewed retailers said sales in August had registered a year-on-year decrease, reflecting an increase of 15 percentage points over July.
In contrast with more negative expectations from the restaurant sector for September, retailers expect no significant change in September’s sales, according to the DSEC results. The proportion of retailers expecting year-on-year growth in sales for the month increased slightly by 1 percentage point to 25 per cent. The most optimistic sector is that engaged in selling motor vehicles, with 67 per cent of respondents anticipating a year-on-year sales growth in September.
