Nine Place: Retail Sales Growth in the First Quarter Outrun Market

The retail market in Hong Kong has been steadily improving. Wu Tianhai, Chairman of Wharf (01997) and Wharf (00004), said that benefiting from the weakening of the Hong Kong dollar, it attracts tourists to Hong Kong to spend, with its two core shopping malls, Harbour City and Times Square’s retail sales performed well in the first quarter and outperformed Hong Kong’s overall retail sales growth.

Weak HKD’s two major mall sales increased by more than 20%

Wu Tianhai pointed out that the overall retail market in Hong Kong has been booming this year. The retail growth of Harbour City in the first quarter rose by more than 30% year-on-year. Times Square also saw an increase of more than 20%. It is expected that it will continue to thrive in April and the “May 1st Golden Week” just passed. The performance is also satisfactory. However, he could not predict the annual retail performance, because the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate can be changed at any time.

In the property market, Wu Tianhai said that the market has been psychologically prepared for the Fed to raise interest rates this year, coupled with low interest rates in Hong Kong, abundant funds, and a stable purchasing power. Therefore, raising interest rates has little effect on property prices, and prices are expected to remain stable.

Wu Tianhai, who is also chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area has a big flaw compared to the rest of the world, namely, there are boundary problems and people cannot freely transit. Some entrepreneurs chose to start businesses in Shenzhen instead of Hong Kong, mainly because of the low cost of starting a business in Shenzhen, can also absorb talent from across the country.

Nine homes fell 2.4% yesterday to close at 56.6 yuan; Nine positions also fell 1.4% to close at 25.5 yuan.