Macao's restaurant, retail businesses continue to grow in February

MACAO, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Restaurants and retail businesses in Macao continued to increase in February from the same period of last year, the special administrative region's (SAR) statistics service said on Thursday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the revenue of the interviewed restaurants and similar establishments increased by 22.6 percent year on year in February.

Sales of the interviewed retailers went up by 7.0 percent year on year in February.

In comparison with January in which the Chinese New Year holiday took place, the revenue of the interviewed restaurants and similar establishments went down by 15.0 percent in February whereas sales of the interviewed retailers fell by 22.3 percent.

Regarding the business expectations for March, 29 percent of the interviewed restaurants and similar establishments expected their receipts to decrease month on month. Meanwhile, about 31 percent of the interviewed retailers forecasted a month-on-month sales growth in March.