The value of Hong Kong's total retail sales rose 6.4 percent to HK$16.5 billion (US$2.12 billion) in March compared with the same period of 2004, the Hong Kong government's Census & Statistics Department announced Friday.

According to the department, after netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the overall volume of retail sales increased 5.4 percent.

Taking the first quarter of 2005 together, retail sales increased by 8.5 percent in value or 7.7 percent in volume over the same period a year earlier.

Reflecting the solid revival in consumer demand, the growth in retail sales was rather broad-based in March, marked by double-digit growth in sales of commodities in department stores and in electrical goods and photographic equipment, as well as a further growth in sales of clothing, footwear and other consumer goods.

Sales of motor vehicles and parts fell 18 percent, though, while sales of food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco slipped 0.9 percent in volume in March compared with a year earlier.

Based on the seasonally adjusted series, the overall volume of retail sales increased 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2005 compared with the preceding quarter.

The Census & Statistics Department said the overall volume of retail sales continued to record a solid growth in March, on the back of improved labor market conditions and generally positive sentiment.

The strength of local consumer demand was evident not only from the faster year-on-year growth in retail sales for the first quarter as a whole as compared with that for the preceding quarter, but also from the further increase on a seasonally adjusted basis over the fourth quarter, it said.

Editor: Yan