Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) put the provisional value of retail sales in August 2026 at HK$32.059 billion, rounded in its release to HK$32.1 billion. That was 5.6% above August 2025. The value measure reflects receipts in current money; the department’s price-adjusted volume estimate increased by 2.9% year on year. The distinction matters: a change in sales value combines changes in the quantity of goods sold and their prices, while the volume index attempts to remove price effects. Both August figures are provisional, and the department says preliminary monthly results are normally released about one month after the reference month, followed by revisions about two months after it.

The latest report also gives context beyond the headline. July’s total value growth was revised to 4.5% year on year. Over January to August combined, the provisional value of sales was 8.5% higher than in the same eight months of 2025; the corresponding volume increase was 6.1%. Online retail was estimated at HK$2.8 billion in August, equal to 8.7% of all retail sales value and 9.9% higher than a year earlier. For the first eight months, online sales value was up 23.0%. These are nominal value comparisons except where volume is explicitly stated, so online sales growth should not be read as an equivalent increase in the quantity of goods purchased.

The report’s outlet breakdown shows an uneven pattern. Compared with August 2025, sales value rose 29.1% at outlets selling electrical goods and other consumer durable goods not elsewhere classified, 11.9% for jewellery, watches, clocks and valuable gifts, 11.2% for books, newspapers, stationery and gifts, and 9.6% for other consumer goods not elsewhere classified. Sales in supermarkets increased 2.1%; medicines and cosmetics rose 5.6%, while food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco increased 1.9%. In contrast, motor vehicles and parts fell 22.0%, fuels 11.7%, Chinese drugs and herbs 6.0%, department-store commodities 2.6% and wearing apparel 0.5%. These categories classify retail outlets by their principal activity, not every individual commodity sold inside them. The figures therefore should not be interpreted as complete product-market totals.

A different short-term signal comes from the seasonally adjusted series. Comparing the three months ending August with the preceding three-month period, the provisional value index fell 4.6% and the volume index fell 3.4%. This is not the same comparison as the 5.6% and 2.9% year-on-year rates: one compares adjacent three-month windows after seasonal adjustment, and the other compares August with August a year earlier using the original monthly series. The department says it applies the X-12 ARIMA method to estimate seasonal factors and that seasonally adjusted values can be revised as more observations arrive. The report uses an index reference average of October 2019 to September 2020 equal to 100; an index level is not a currency amount.

C&SD compiles these statistics from its Monthly Survey of Retail Sales, covering local retail companies with and without physical shops and sales through both conventional and online channels. The measure concerns receipts from goods sold by local retailers. It excludes services such as housing, catering, transport, health, education, finance and entertainment, which together account for more than half of overall consumer spending. It includes goods bought in Hong Kong by visitors but excludes purchases made abroad by Hong Kong residents. For that reason, retail sales are not a complete measure of household consumption; the department points readers to private consumption expenditure for a broader goods-and-services measure. The headline indicates growth in this defined retail-goods series, not a comprehensive verdict on household spending or the whole economy.