{"id":168034,"date":"2025-06-08T16:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T16:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/168034\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T16:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T16:37:12","slug":"exclusive-yes-hong-kongs-retail-sector-is-struggling-but-people-will-have-to-adapt-john-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/168034\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Yes, Hong Kong\u2019s retail sector is struggling but people will have to adapt: John Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong\u2019s leader has conceded that the city has a problem with its sluggish retail scene amid a trend of locals spending their holidays across the border, but warned against using it as the sole yardstick in assessing the economy.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Executive <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/john-lee?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">John Lee Ka-chiu<\/a> also called on businesses to \u201cwork harder\u201d in light of the market changes and to reform to retain if not grow their slice of the cake.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong\u2019s retail sales dropped for a 14th consecutive month in April, falling by 2.3 per cent, year on year, to HK$28.9 billion (US$3.7 billion). For the first four months, retail sales were down by 5.6 per cent over the same period last year, as witnessed in a string of chain closures.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe do have a problem with retail, and that is to do with the changing of the market,\u201d Lee told the Post in an exclusive interview, referring to the trend of Hongkongers spending their weekends and holidays in neighbouring mainland Chinese cities.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIt is a negative change of market phenomena. People will have to adapt to it, and we have to refocus on what we should do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\u201cThe cake is still getting bigger. But, of course, [businesses will have] to work harder to ensure that this slice continues to grow,\u201d city leader John Lee has said. Photo: Dickson Lee\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/6fc81921-fab3-42ac-9d9d-e6c0f9fe398c_1126e908.jpg\" title=\"\u201cThe cake is still getting bigger. But, of course, [businesses will have] to work harder to ensure that this slice continues to grow,\u201d city leader John Lee has said. Photo: Dickson Lee\"\/>\u201cThe cake is still getting bigger. But, of course, [businesses will have] to work harder to ensure that this slice continues to grow,\u201d city leader John Lee has said. Photo: Dickson Lee<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He also argued that while shops had closed during the transitional period, new stores were also opening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s leader has conceded that the city has a problem with its sluggish retail scene amid a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[70231,51,70230,1700,3749,70229,70232,26948,16,15,8013],"class_list":{"0":"post-168034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-after-you-dessert-cafe","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-chief-executive-john-lee-ka-chiu","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-hong-kong","13":"tag-hongkongers","14":"tag-ocean-empire","15":"tag-retail-sales","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-us-china-trade-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114648728067753384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}