HONG KONG, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's hotels and restaurants suffered the most last year as the economy reeled from months of violent protests and even riots, official data showed.
Net output in the accommodation and food services plunged 23 percent from a year ago in the fourth quarter and dropped 9 percent for 2019 as a whole, the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said Monday in a statement.
The declines appeared to be the largest among a wide range of service sectors that bore the major brunt of violent incidents in the second half of 2019, when visitors, the major driver of Hong Kong's consumption, were scared off.
The import and export, wholesale, and retail sales combined fell 8.3 percent in the fourth quarter and 6.2 percent in the whole year. The transportation, storage, postal, and courier services lost 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter and edged down 1.6 percent in 2019.
All the service sectors as a whole dropped 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter and 0.3 percent in 2019.
The statistics authority said the sharp fall in visitor arrivals, along with a global economic slowdown and trade tensions, took a heavy toll on retail business in Hong Kong last year. It also confirmed some preliminary figures, including a 2.9-percent and 1.2-percent drop in the GDP during the fourth quarter and the whole 2019, respectively.
Monday's data also showed that the total incomes of Hong Kong residents, excluded price changes, went down 3.3 percent from a year earlier in the fourth quarter and inched down 1.1 percent for the whole year.
